Dr Martiz, Spanish Assassin
by LizSnape
Summary: Dr. Adrianna Martiz, expert in matters of the brain is her official title. She has a sad and tortured past that she tries to forget. You know Michaela's story, now get to know Adrianna's.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman at all. Those belong to their respected owners. I am only using the known characters in this story. The ones that you don't recognize are those that I have created. In this chapter, the prologue, there are no DQMW characters, but this is a fanfic, so I put this disclaimer on anyway.

Carlotta Martiz stared at her children; she knew that she was very lucky; she had the perfect life, the life that she always wanted. She was so scared to move to America at first, it was so big. It was hard to adjust to a life where no one knows you and you don't even speak the language well. That was why she had her husband, the man of her dreams. Without him, she would be lost literally. He knew the language well and was the reason that she was here. She loved him deeply and they already have three beautiful girls together.

As she stared at her youngest child, her four month-old daughter and she thought about the secret that she kept, one that she was going to tell everyone tonight, she was pregnant. She was pregnant with their fourth child and she had a distinct feeling that this was going to be the son that Alejandro always wanted.

She felt a pull at her dress and looked down, her eyes warmed as she stared at her middle child. Alejandra was the quietest. She was also a good drawer. She would sit down and draw whatever came to her mind. Carlotta was surprised how realistic her drawings were. It was even more surprising, since she was only six.

Alejandra stared her mother with her wide brown eyes and smiled. She held out a picture and handed it to Carlotta.

"Para tú mama!" she exclaimed. Carlotta took the picture that was given to her and almost cried. The picture was of her whole family and was in so much detail that she almost thought it was real.

Right then, her oldest daughter stormed in the house all muddy and dirty. She was always excited and rambunctious. Carlotta loved her deeply. She looked up and gave her mother a smile. A smile that showed her gaps in her teeth. She ran to Carlotta and hugged her, bringing mud all over the floor and her dress.

"Mama, I'm sorry!" her eight year-old daughter Adrianna exclaimed and then took a frog from her pocket. Carlotta screamed as the frog jumped to her dress and then off to her youngest. The baby smiled and tried to go after the frog. As it jumped, the infant crawled after it, but the frog was too fast. It jumped away and out the backdoor.

Carlotta did not know much English, but she knew enough to tell to clean up.

"Querida, I want you to…to…." Carlotta tried to remember the word for limpio, but she could not remember it. Adrianna laughed at her mother.

"Do you mean clean?" she asked.

"Sí, sí." Carlotta smiled at her daughter and told her to go clean up.

She then took her infant daughter who was looking very sleepy. She knew that it was time that the four month old youngster went to sleep.

She carried the baby to her nursery and to the rocking chair. When she got into the chair, she started to breast feed her daughter.

There were times that Carlotta was unsure about this country. It had a double standard about what was right and wrong. They are trying to destroy the natives of this country, and are also destroying immigrants. She had tried so many times to be friendly with them, but stopped. As long as they were safe, Carlotta was happy. It was sad, but she could live with it.

Soon enough Carlotta heard the door open and then close. The steps were loud, as in a boot and also hurried. She put Isabel in her cradle, buttoned up her shirt, and walked into the main living area. There was Alejandro, who looked like he was beat up. He had taken Alejandra into his arms to cry to comfort her. She seemed to be crying, due to the big bruises on his face.

Alejandro went to Carlotta with a very fearful look on his face.

"I'm sorry querida, but we have to leave." Alejandro urgently said.

She did not know that much English, but she could tell when he was upset, and the word leave was salir in Spanish.

"What happened?" she asked scared.

"There are some angry people at my job." He said it slowly so that his wife could understand. She looked distressed, but he was not sure if she understood.

He decided to continue. "They came and attacked me. I got out, but they said that they had some friends who were going to destroy our family."

"Destroy our family?" That was something that she understood, and it scared her that she did.

They had to get out of there, there was no way out. Alejandra started to cry really hard, and would not stop, even when Alejandro rocked her.

Then all of the sudden she stopped. Alejandro looked at her and widened his eyes as she went limp. He put his hand on her head and screamed as he saw her blood in his hands.

Adrianna heard some screams and slowly went to see what was happening. She went to her special spot that no one knew about. She widened her eyes as she saw her whole family get murdered. Tears of anger fell as she saw it happen. It was so terrible that she could not even repeat it in her memory. She glared at one of the men, one that was wearing a uniform, a uniform like those that her father called a United States soldier. He had a pointed beard and a look of triumph as he murdered her family. They left soon enough, but exclaimed that they would come back to "ransack the house".

Adrianna ran to her family and cried. She looked at the naked body of her own mother and tried to cover her. After she found one of Isabel's blankets that were left, and covered her mother with it, she heard a voice. She froze, afraid that they were back. She looked around and then saw her father move very slowly.

"Papi?" she asked and saw him open his mouth slightly.

"Anna. I want you to go far away and to take Isabel." He said very weakly.

Tears fell from her face as she shook her head. She watched as he took his last breath and whispered, "I love you".

Adrianna then ran to Isabel's room and grabbed her, along with a couple blankets, food and toys of hers. She then ran out the back door, carrying her infant sister, the only family she had left….


	2. One Day In Med School

Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman or any of the characters or locales that you recognize. Those belong to CBS inc., I am only using them for fun in this story.

A man with a light grey goatee took out his bayonet and stared at the woman on the ground, her eyes full of fear, her clothes ripped from her body. He took out the sword on the gun and put it on her stomach. Her eyes were full of fear as she looked into his eyes. He gave her a look of triumph as he saw the fear in her eyes.

He started to laugh really hard and lifted the bayonet high. The woman started to scream very loud. Those screams were soon drowned out by that of another woman.

This woman was barely a woman, she looked like she was in her early twenties with dark raven hair that curled at the bottom. Her tired, brown eyes tried to concentrate on the ceiling. This woman was not in the same area, in fact this was at night in a bedroom.

The "woman" sat up and got out of bed. She walked to a desk next to her bed and sat down to light a candle on the desk. Her hand moved to her forehead, where she generously rubbed it.

"It was just a dream, just a dream." The woman said in a thick Spanish accent to herself. Another person soon slowly walked up from behind her looking concerned.

"Annie, what is wrong? You were screaming? I was concerned about you! This is the fifth time in the last week that you have awoken up screaming! Will you tell me about this dream?" asked a skinny, curly blond girl.

Annie looked at the blue eyes of her best friend and smiled. She knew that she could not tell her about this dream. It was too gruesome, even for someone who was a medical student. It was the dream that was her reality, her past. It was not a surreal interpretation that was the scary part. It was also a part of whom she was.

"Caroline, I'm sorry but it's personal. I don't really want to talk about it, it's….just…..A stupid dream."

Caroline stared at her friend still concerned, but understanding of her best friends feelings, even if she wanted to know more about her. Caroline looked back at her friend for one last time and then went to bed.

Adrianna smiled at her and then stared into the light of the candle. A tear started to slowly form from her left eye. If only she knew the truth. If only she knew that she was not dreaming, she was not even asleep, she was trying to sleep, but she was reliving it all, reliving the gruesome death of her parents. She was remembering how she saw her own mother get stabbed repeatedly by a United States soldier a colonel. She angerly wiped the tears from her face and thought about the bastard. She then smiled as she thought about how she got her revenge.

She went to bed, trying to think happy thoughts, but she could not. This was her reality.

Adrianna woke up, still upset, still scared, still angry and still unsure about her life. It didn't seen fair that she was here. Why was she alive? Why did this all happen?

As she thought about these thoughts, she got ready for her first class today. The professor was very strict, especially for her since she had to prove herself, maybe more that most of the women here. She was from Spain, actually Sineu, everyone who spoke Spanish was considered Mexican and so she was put into that stereotype that she was poor, uneducated and only good for working in the fields and having ten children. It was unfair, but part of life. She learned to trust no one in her life. It was a hard lesson that she found out at a young age. People fear you, people do not like change, they do not like that you are different. They treat you like you are a freak because you speak with a strange accent. Even though you just look like you just have a tan, they treat you differently.

There had been so many times that Adrianna thought about suicide. It would be so easy to take her own life. So easy to leave this world. Then she thought about those people that treated her like she was nothing and knew that they would have won. That was what they wanted. They want you destroyed. Adrianna would not do that. She had a sister to take care of. One that was a teenager now. One that was growing up and needed her guidance. She was in a boarding school in Madrid, España. It was the only place that would actually take her. She tried almost every boarding school in the United States that she could think of, but they would not take her. Even when she gave them money, a lot of it. Money that her mother's parents gave her when they died.

Adrianna looked for her textbook and other supplies and left the dormitories. It was 6AM, the class started at eight, the perfect time for her to sit at a bench and think. It was something that was probably good and bad for her. If she thinks, that means, she will be thinking about her life. Her whole nuclear family except for her sister is dead. Her grandparents on her mother's side were dead and also very rich. Her father's parents were poor. It was very strange that she was learning so much about her parents from their parents. It was strange that they were also dead and had no other children.

Adrianna closed her eyes and one tear fell. She wished that her mother was alive. There were times in her life that she needed a mother. She needed the advice and the comfort of a maternal figure. In her whole life, she never got that. She never had many relationships at all.

As she was pondering that thought, the professor of her class today walked by talking to a woman with a Bostonian accent. She looked familiar, but she could not tell when or where she had seen her. The professor stopped and so did the woman. Adrianna wiped her tear from her face and stood up.

"Professor Jacobs. How are you doing this morning?" she asked in her normal thick accent.

Professor Jacobs smiled and so did the woman.

"Adrianna Martiz, I want you to meet an alumni of this school. This is doctor Michaela Quinn of Boston. She has a practice with her father Joseph Quinn."

Adrianna smiled and remembered hearing her name through the halls and buildings of this school. She was one of the few success stories of this school. She was a doctor practicing in Boston with her father. That was something that many women found never happened. They learned all about medicine, but the medical world did not care about that. There was no such thing as a female doctor.

They said their goodbyes and left. Adrianna smiled thinking about the female doctor. She usually was not moved by one human because there was no reason to be. As she started to read ahead in her chapter she was hit on the back of the head. Her asesino training told her to watch her environment for clues to defeat the enemy. She stared at the tree ahead and knew that if she could move fast, she could rip off a branch and use it as a primitive nunchaku, or at least as something to hit someone in the head repeatedly as an intricate combo.

She ran to the tree and turned around, ready to bludgeon the enemy when she realized that this was not the enemy, but her best friend Carly, who sneaked up on her as a joke.

She threw down the branch and stared at her in disbelief. Carly was laughing at her. She then pointed to her and said, "You have the stupidest look on your face now Annie!"

Adrianna felt so stupid at that moment that she took her stuff and started to walk to the building that her class was in, trying to ignore Carly's laughs.

Adrianna and Caroline went to their respective seats in the front row at around 7:00 A.M., an hour before the class as they always did. A lot of the students were afraid to be late. They wanted to prove that they were meant to be doctors and that they were responsible. A lot of the students were usually there by 7:30, so many times the class started at that time and ended a half hour early at 11:30.

"Annie, I really think that you need to calm down. You seem to always be off on something. If you just clam down and breathe, you will do way better. Relax!"

Adrianna stared at Carly, looking angry.

"I do not need you to tell me to relax. I'm fine." Adrianna snapped.

Carly decided that there was nothing that she could do for her best friend so she decided to shut up.

The class soon started and both girls listened intently as the Professor introduced Dr. Michaela Quinn. As Dr. Quinn walked to the center of the classroom, where the corpse was the class was very interested as she taught how to perform a tracheotomy. She cut with such precision that after she was finished, the whole class stood up and applauded her. Adrianna was one of them. This woman was astounding. At the end of the class, the whole class left chattering about this woman.

Adrianna was moved, more than could be understood. She walked to the front of the room and was pushed to the ground by one of the students.

"You wetback! Go back home to Mexico!" said Patti Peterson, a somewhat brute (but rich) woman who was the definition of a bigot. She hater Adrianna because she was different. She treated her like she was scum. There had been times that she had found herself surrounded by a few of her friends, ready to beat her up with their gang. This seemed sad and pathetic since they should be standing together, instead of apart.

Adrianna smiled. The one thing that Patti didn't know was that she was a full trained asesino and a fully learned and trained freedom fighter. She was an assassin, someone who could easily kill her and not think twice about it. Patti stared her down until the Professor came by to figure out what was happening. Both girls were almost surrounded by the students that were still there. Patti glared at Adrianna like she was going to beat her down. Adrianna was looking bored, staring at some instruments at the side of the room. That was her defense mechanism in these moments.

"What is going on here?" asked Professor Jacobs. He kept looking from woman to "Woman," knowing that Patti had a severe loathing for Adrianna. Adrianna then turned her head and stared at professor Jacobs with a complacent smile.

"Professor Jacobs, we were just having a conversation about Dr. Quinn. There is nothing wrong here."

The Professor stared at Patti, not believing what Adrianna said.

"I want you to leave Patricia." The Professor said coldly.

Adrianna gave one last stare at Patti, looking uninterested. By the time the students realized that no one was going to get hurt, they left. Michaela Quinn walked right to Adrianna and smiled at her.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah. That happens a lot. You would think that they would stop, seeing that they are treated similar, being women in medicine."

Michaela smiled, understanding creeping in her face. She sadly shook her head.

"It's hard, really hard. Not many people accept a female doctor. The only reason that I am practicing is because of my father."

Adrianna gave her a sad smile. Why was life so unfair? She looked at the corpse that Quinn had just performed on.

"You are really good. Probably better than most male doctors."

Michaela smiled and felt some type of gratitude to her. "You are younger than most medical students. I have been learning a lot about you. Someone with your experience would be a great physician. Edward Jacobs said that you are one of finest students here in the last few years. I think that you would do great working along with me and my father. What do you think?"

Adrianna was not sure if she had heard her right. She never got any luck. She was never given anything worthwhile by anyone with light skin. She almost had tears in her eyes.

She smiled and shook her head. Her eyes became glossy as she started to speak.

"Thank you. No one has ever done anything nice for me." Adrianna was silent for at least a minute, fighting back the tears. She went closer to Michaela and whispered two words, words that she had not said since she was a little girl.

"Thank you..."


	3. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part One

Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. That means the characters, locales etc. They belong to CBS incorporated. If I did own them, I certainly would not have 40 dollars in my checking account!

Adrianna Martiz stared at the corpse in the casket. It was hard for her to think that he was a corpse. How could he be dead? Maybe she had bad luck. Bad things seemed to happen around her. If she was to think that, then she would go crazy like many of her patients. Maybe black was her color.

She turned around and stared at the disapproving faces of all of the people there except one. Her best friend and daughter of this man: Michaela Quinn. She was probably the most upset about her father's death. From the times that Adrianna was taken in almost as another child (At least that was what Joseph thought. Señora Quinn did not like the mysterious and lonely Spaniard.), she could tell that Joseph loved Michaela a lot. That was probably due to the fact that they had a lot in common with each other. The other sisters seemed to care more about getting married and having children.

Adrianna wondered if she would have been like Michaela or her sisters if her parents and little sister lived. Adrianna reprimanded herself; she had to stop doing that. It was not fair to her. Wondering if things were different would not change the past. It actually made it harder.

Adrianna stared at Michaela and felt a sense of understanding. To lose a loved one, to have to live through that. That was the hardest part. Remembering the good times, that helped a little. She had learned through trial and error how to get through the pain. Michaela just sat there, alone, near a wall...sad. There seemed to be no one to comfort her. No relative seemed to even care that she was hurting. Adrianna walked over to her, ready to try to tell her what to do. Maybe that would help.

"It hurts doesn't it?" She silently asked her.

Michaela stared at Adrianna, knowing that she had a hard life, that her parents were dead. Even if it was from some deadly virus, as she said. She seemed understanding, like she knew how she was feeling.

Adrianna concentrated on the flowers behind Michaela, like she was trying to summon them to her telepathically. She seemed to have a look of intense concentration, for no reason at all. Soon enough she slowly turned her eyes on Michaela. They were dark, brown and very understanding and sad. She just stood there, and stared at Michaela, not really saying anything. She soon left, walking away from the adverted gazes of everyone.

Michaela looked straight ahead and knew that she had to say goodbye to her father. She ran into her mother, who gave her a disapproving glare. She stared at her back and then kept walking to her casket. She stared at it, as her mother and sisters stared at the female doctor. Michaela went straight to the casket and kissed her father on the forehead. Her mother seemed to almost be trying to stop her, and Michaela ran out of the room, full of pain, not sure how to endure it.

After Joseph's death, the practice ended. It might be that they were humoring him by staying as long as they did. The truth was that there were not enough people to keep the practice. That meant that the last year that Adrianna had been researching the brain was gone. Joseph Quinn was well respected in the medical world of Boston and with the advanced grades that Adrianna got; she was accepted as an "assistant" in the studies. With Joseph gone, she was kicked out so fast that she had to breathe for a second. She was of course surprised that she was there for that long. The doctors never took her seriously at first, until they realized that she was smart and an asset. Even with that reputation, and the fact that she had almost gained a following of neurologists, she was kicked out. Adrianna believed that it was the owners of the hospital that were to blame and not her colleagues.

Michaela and she were out of jobs. What were they to do? There was not much that they could do. As Adrianna thought about it for a few days. Unsure about what to do, she thought about her home country and the asesino training that she learned. They taught her many things about life and how to defeat the enemy. One was that there was always an alternative to any situation. There was a popular adage that they would tell her in training: _Siempre habrá una alternativa a una alternativa. _(There is always an alternative to an alternative.) In this case, she remembered her sister and how she had the fever when she was two. No one would treat her. She had dark skin and a strange accent. There was no doctor until a recluse in the town came to their age. Everyone was afraid of him, but the truth was that he was a British doctor that had served in Russia during the Crimean War. The war had turned him into a recluse, and someone that many townsfolk talked about behind their backs. He saved her life and also took them in, being that they both were living on the streets literally.

It came to Adri one day when they looked through the papers to read about more riots in New York City. The Irish immigrants were fighting against the corruption in the city that still occurred, even though the major ones were gone, the minor ones could still do some damage. She felt for them, she knew what it was like to be treated like an outsider. She knew what it was like to see her little sister on the ground, coughing up blood and no one helping her because she was from Majorca. When she read the slanted view of the reporters she ripped the newspaper in half and threw it on the ground. She was sick and tired of it and there was nothing that she could do. There were too many of these so called natives that would never give up their views.

Michaela stared at Adrianna worried; she knew that there was not much that she could do for her. There wasn't much that she could do about many of the injustices in this world but she tried her best to solve them. Many things could not be stopped, but she knew that she had to try. As Adrianna started to talk fast and dangerous in Spanish, Michaela cleared her throat to try to get Adrianna's attention. Ad stared to Mike and gave her a shy smile.

"I am so sorry. I just am sick and tired of living by the white man's law!" she said in her thick Spanish accent. She stared at the bland colored walls of the Quinn house with angry tears threatening to come out and thought about what she just said. Does the white man always care about this law? Does he always live by a certain culture? Could he accept a female doctor if it was his well being that was in danger? If there was one thing that she knew about the white man, it was that he was selfish and only cared about himself and no one else. If it benefited him then he did it. That was going to be their advantage. The egotistical ways of the coward white man would serve them well.

Michaela could tell that Adrianna had an idea, she had that look where it looked like she was going whip out a sword and stab someone in the heart. Instead she cleared her throat and took a piece of toast and spread marmalade on it. She slowly ate it and stared out at the window and into the road below. When she was finished, she looked back at Michaela.

"Mikey, I know what to do." Adrianna spoke very inquisitively, like she was pondering the question recently when Michaela knew that she had this idea minutes ago.

"I know that it is impossible to even think that we will get a job in this world. I think that the only possible alternative is to go somewhere where we will not be treated the same, where conditions are different. If we go to the Wild West, there would be no alternatives!"

After Adrianna stopped talking, Michaela smiled and had already got up and took out a piece of parchment and started to write down a message. She seemed more excited than she had been since her father died. She had in her hand a message for the telegraph operator; a message that will be displayed all over the country and hopefully will be answered by some one who will be desperate enough to answer it.

It was three long months until there was a reply to Michaela's telegraph. During that time Adrianna found herself submersed in ancient text and readings about the old but new science of psychology. It seemed strange that this study of the mind and the behavior is a new science, but not many people really think about it. The old Greek philosophers had some great ideas about the mind that with more study could prove useful. Not many think about it, but that is what Adrianna has always wanted to know. She wanted to know why one person could be kind, gentle, understanding and a just around good person while others are cruel, evil, sadist and just a sadistic individual that wanted to kill and kill. She wanted to know why there were men like Colonel Shaken: the man who murdered her family.

She knew that she would not find that answer in her lifetime, there was still not that much that she knew, but if she helped forge this science, she knew that she did something useful in her life. As she went through her research, she knew that she must help people and continue being a doctor. That was why she waited patiently as Michaela did when waiting for that telegraph.

The day that it did come was a happy day. They finally had a job that would be accepted and she knew that that they both had to move on with their lives. This was the time that it had to happen; this was the time that they were going to start a new chapter in their lives.

It was strained goodbye for Michaela and her mother. Their relationship was not perfect and they were both too stubborn to give into the other. Michaela made her choice and her mother could do nothing to sway her at all. Elizabeth Quinn gave Adrianna a downward glance and said a short goodbye to her, nothing with much emotion.

The journey to the mysterious town named Colorado Springs was long and tiring. Staying at train stations, Michaela's luggage, watching men eye you like were going to rob you, Michaela's luggage, spending money on food that looked strange and undesirable, Michaela's luggage, sitting in uncomfortable seats that made your butt muscles numb, Michaela's luggage and Michaela's twenty, one hundred pound each suitcases were a few of the problems that Adrianna felt during the two week travel across the country to the territory of Colorado.

She had previously lived as a freedom fighter assassin for four years hunting down United States soldiers that she deemed evil. It would seem that she would be used to the travel. She went from place to place living off nothing, hunting down soldiers for their indiscretions. She was ashamed of what she did. The only difference was that she was actually in the train and with the white man, while before she stood on the roof of the train and stayed away from civilization. She now knows that she was just the same as the white man when she killed someone because of the color of their skin and what they wore. That was something that she gave up; because she knew that it was wrong to kill someone because of another person's sin, or sins. Not every United States soldier was evil, just about 95 percent of them.

As they got into a stagecoach that was unfortunately uncomfortable, Adrianna looked outside at the beautiful landscape and wondered if the whites really knew how beautiful the world was here. How they had some incredible beauty that didn't need to be destroyed to be generally accepted. Why did they have to spread hate all over the world to satisfy their egos? Why did they treat those that were different as inhuman? People like the real Americans, as she called them or Indians, even though she doubted that they had been born in India or even been there.

When she saw the so called Indian outside from her stagecoach, she remembered her days as an assassin yet again. She had gone all over the frontier in her search of revenge and had met many of these Indians. They were always considerate to her, always understanding, they became her ally and constant companion at time. Now she was going to live out in the frontier, with the white men.

After hours of sitting in a stagecoach, wondering if Michaela's luggage would fall through the roof, they came into a town that was as dusty as it was small. There were few stores and general places that small towns need like a church, mercantile, blacksmith, barber and the most important: the saloon.

The stagecoach came to a stop on some muddy terrain. Adrianna always wore some long, tough and black boots that used to be part of her assassin apparel, so she wasn't worried about the mud. They were for all weather, so she easily walked down the wooden steps and to the muddy ground. That was a different story for Michaela who was wearing some dark colored dress shoes, which were not intended for mud. Adrianna looked around and so frowned a little when she saw the looks on the faces of the town folks. It was the same look that she was given in Boston. It was the same look that she was given wherever she went her whole life. It was the look that said you were different and you were a freak. One man that looked to be in his mid thirties with a corduroy suit and hat, scoffed at them, like they were pathetic. He was giving into the stereotype of the rich white woman. He saw Michaela as that, a snotty rich girl who looked down on them as scum. As the ton of luggage that Michaela had was brought down, Adrianna took her one small bag and started to walk toward the closest person around.

He looked to be in his fifties or sixties and was wearing a dress shirt under a dark colored vest and pants. He looked down on her too like the other man had. She had a long trip so she didn't really care to think about the fact that there were humans here. When she walked past him, she bumped into him. She stumbled a little, but didn't fall. This man didn't fall but instead stood back staring at her like she was contaminated with a dangerous disease. She stared back at him dangerously and gave him a sarcastic smile. By that time Michaela was there, standing next to her and clearing her throat.

"Pardon me, where might I find reverend Johnson?" she asked. He seemed a little irked but looked ahead down the road where there was a discolored building that looked like, in all respects, a church. Adrianna then accidentally jumped onto the mud when she moved from the wooden boards of a small walkway to the ground, especially when she splashed a few of the people that she had the pleasure of sitting next to in the stagecoach. She hit a pregnant woman who soon had a look like she just got shot. A big looking man walked right at Adrianna and took some mud from the ground and forcefully slammed it on her face. Then he had an evil smile on his face.

"Now you are truly a dirty Mexican!" Everyone laughed, some seemed to fake it, but it was a racist joke so it was funny to them. Adrianna tried to wipe off all of the mud, but there was just too much. She them started to breathe very slowly, trying to contain the feeling of hatred that she had for these people. She now knew that they were like everyone, this town was not the same. She would bet all of the money that she had that they were not going to be accepted as doctors. It took all of her might to not kill him.

"I'm not a Mexican, _Señor_. I am from Majorca!" She spat, sending mud to his face. She found that Michaela was already walking to the church, obviously unaware of what happened. She looked upset when she saw what happened and asked about it. Adrianna answered that she fell down and she believed it, even though there was no remnants of mud on her dark blue dress.

They walked together, Michaela walking on the wooden walkway and Adrianna on the mud of the "road". They walked by the Saloon and she saw women dressed for prostitution. The looks on their faces made Adri think that they were lost, not sure where they were in life. One stood out, her look was more like that she was stuck, but wanted more. She felt for that punta and she almost walked over to talk to her.

They continued to walk; some men seemed to be working on some construction project. They were almost run over by some soldiers on horseback. She did not say anything, but the urge to knock them off their horse and stab them repeatedly in their small, non existent hearts only briefly passed. She stopped, she knew it was wrong and took a vow to not kill people unless it was needed. She was a doctor now and had a job of helping and saving lives if not their sanities. They then walked onto a simple bridge and to some real Americans on horseback. They were next to a few teepees. Adri scoffed, knowing that they were probably getting pushed out of their land. They soon came to the church, which was humble and small in stature. It looked like a sanctuary to her.

When they did get there, they found a man painting siding. Michaela asked if he was this reverend Johnson. He cheerfully answered yes and asked who Michaela was. He also kept staring at Adrianna like she was a strange specimen.

When he finally found out that Michaela was a doctor, he couldn't believe it. He actually thought that this doctor was a Michael. Adri stared at him in disbelief. It was typical that the white man would think that she couldn't do it. This doctor was not a man, but a woman. When we started to walk toward the telegraph office, the inevitable happened, Michaela fell on the ground. Mud was all over her purple dress. Adri tried to contain her laughter but found it hard. She started to laugh and so did Michaela, the reverend did not seem as amused as the two women so they decided it was best to be quiet. They walked the rest of the way to the telegraph office in silence and soon met a tall and lanky man that seemed to again have a kind disposition. Of course she knew that appearances were deceiving.

Of course this man changed the a of Michaela's name, thinking it was an initial. It was the strange unfortunate mistake of a telegraph man in a small town that brought them here. It was not the desperation of a town in trouble, it was not the grateful understanding of a progressive town, it was that some white man made the mistake of omitting a letter in a name.

This was all a mistake to him and he took them to a boarding house to stay for the night. He said that he would pay for a train trip for Michaela and her assistant. I looked at him and tried to stop from thinking that that was what everyone thought about her. She was an immigrant so she must be a servant, she would never be anything in expendable! Ignoring that comment, they found themselves at a door, which the reverend knocked while Michaela talked about every town needing a female doctor. The reverend answered by stating that widow Cooper not allowing any unmarried women in.

After about a minute, the door was answered by young man with blond hair. Adrianna thought that he was in his late teens, which meant he was only a few years younger than her. He was wearing a white shirt with black suspenders connected with black pants. The reverend asked for him to fetch his mother and he yelled for her. She soon came out holding a chicken by the feet. She looked to be in her mid forties and had a very kindly face that did not seem to look down on either of the women. Instead she went to shake her hand and had to take the struggling chicken to her other hand.

As she shook her hand she stared at Adrianna. Adri was taken aback that someone would ever touch her. She walked closer to Adri and took out her hand. Adrianna shook it and found that this woman's hand was as warm as her heart seemed to be.

"This is my associate Dr. Adrianna Martiz; she is from a small island off of Spain." Michaela said and the reverend looked surprised. His face then looked a little red, knowing that he had made the mistake of calling her an assistant.

"Sí, sí, I am not what you expected que?" she blurted out smiling back the feeling of anger and hurt inside.

"No, no, I would not have believed it." The reverend stated.

This widow Cooper then introduced her children as Adrianna went to the nearest watering hole and threw her face in it. A few men were about to take their horses there but muttered something about it being contaminated since it was touched by a Mexican. Adrianna also had the distinct pleasure of hearing some state that they saw no difference in her facial complexion, from when the dirt was there. Adrianna again resisted the urge of violence that seemed to have been hidden for years and walked around. She saw that there was a blonde girl who looked to be in her preteen years and a little boy who looked to be six. Adrianna smiled and looked straight to the girl was smiled at her.

"I like your voice", she stated and Adri laughed.

"The disadvantage of spending the first four years of your life on an island, Senorita." She smiled at the Spanish that I used.

"So you have been to another country?" she asked as we all came into the boarding house.

"Sí, yes, I have been to many places in this world. I have mostly lived in the United States and its territories, but have also been to my home country and Spain." I answered taking in the house. She seemed enthralled at this, but as she was going to ask more, she found that she was interrupted by Widow Cooper who was to take them to their room.

The Widow explained how soldiers were staying here for treaty council and seemed to pick up my hatred because she asked me about it. I answered that they were not my favorite people and she smiled gently. The reverend and the oldest son who was called Matthew asked if I had any suitcases that they missed. I shook my head no and pointed to my simple bag. They looked surprised, but didn't say anything at all.

This was the time that we looked in anger at each other for the situation that happened. She was stubborn and I knew from the look in her face that she was not going to leave. Even though I was treated worse then I was in Boston, I knew that I had to stay here with her.

"Well, we're here right? Why not stay?" We both agreed that we had to stay here and find a way to start a medicinal practice.


	4. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Michaela, Sully, Loren, Charlotte, Horace and all of the other characters mentioned here. I also do not own anything that you recognize. They belong to CBS incorporated and A&E. Go Les Moonves! I do own Adrianna though and I'm well proud of her.

Adrianna was late for dinner, having to wash off the remnants of the mud from her face and neck. She also had to figure out the bag that had all of her possessions. She opened the bag and grabbed a handful of silver necklaces, each bearing a ring with a miniature item on it like a dress or a hat. Adrianna was a conservative in many aspects and didn't like change. The last time she was in the freedom fighter world, she was given this by her cousin, the king. It was a new invention that he said is useful in travel. She found that he was correct and took one hundred on them. The whole idea was that the rings take items and make them smaller to carry. By attaching the ring to an item and touching a certain part, the item would shrink. In the bag, she carried all of her possessions and save space. It made it so that she wouldn't be like Michaela with her 20 suitcases of luggage. Being miniature was bad since it was sometimes hard to tell one item from another. She solved that by putting all of her clothes in a chest and putting the ring on that. It was certainly hard to put the ring on it and learned not to hold the large chest by the ring.

She moved through the items easily and found a dress to suit her needs. It was a simple checkered black and white dress with pockets for items that she needed. She found those items in a different chest that she soon enlarged and put the Carlucci knifes in each pocket. The hearing of the soldiers put her on edge and she wanted to be safe. She knew not to trust U.S. soldiers, especially in a moment of vulnerability like eating.

She put that chest in its small state, along with the first chest. The next one was her vanity chest, and she rarely used it. The only use it had was for covering marks on her body that she knew didn't need to be seen. Those included her branding tattoos and certain scars. She went to the mirror holding the makeup in her hand. There she was, in her most vulnerable state. She put on her dress and put the knives in her pockets. She never told anyone she was half freedom fighter, if they knew then she would not be able to exist in the white man's world. Not that that was a problem, but she felt that it was her duty to help those that needed to be helped. She put her hand to her scar or her left cheek. There it was, etched from a knife: 085. It was her mark, something that said she was a freedom fighter assassin. She took the makeup and smoothed it on her face. The 085 disappeared from her face and she looked like a simple girl from Spain. She was now ready to go down there, for a dinner that she was not ready for. She put her makeup back into the chest and made that chest small. She them moved the silver necklaces back into her bed.

When she came down, Widow Cooper had already said her prayer. She smiled when she saw her, as did her children and Michaela. Maybe it was that Adrianna gave the soldiers a mistrustful stare that caused the soldiers to stare at her unkindly. She went to sit down next to Michaela at the end of the table and said the tradition Catholic dinner prayer in Latin. That caused some averted gazes, but she was not in the mood. She didn't care if they looked at her different. They were all Christians, correct?

They ate in silence for about thirty seconds when Widow Cooper smiled at the two women on the end.

"So Adrianna, you are not from America."

Adrianna finished the piece of chicken in the stew she was eating, feeling a little bad that this was probably the same one that she saw when she first met Widow Cooper.

"You are correct, Señora. I was born on the island of Majorca in a city called Sineu. It is off of Spain. I lived there for the first four years of my life until mi familia decided to move the America. We settled into Vermont and lived there until my parents died of a virus. I took my little sister and we lived in an orphanage for years until my cousin learned of us and we lived there until I wanted to go to medical school and my sister went to a boarding school in Madrid España. That is how I met of Michaela and I soon came to Boston to study medicine."

Widow Cooper smiled at that while the oldest of the soldiers, probably the leader, frowned but didn't saw anything. Adrianna felt bad herself at lying to everyone, she just couldn't tell anyone. It was too much to tell, she didn't need them feeling sorry for her or looking down on her. She smiled anyway.

Seeming satisfied at that statement she didn't continue the conversation. I was now Michaela that started to talk.

"So _Captain_ Chivington, how is the treaty progressing?" Adrianna had learned in her days as an assassin of soldiers how to anticipate the nest move. She knew that this Chivington was not a Captain and that this disrespect would cause him to give her an angry reply.

He gave Michaela a self righteous glare and said, "Colonel Chivington". Michaela apologized and waited for a reply. The Colonel started his disrespect for the so called "Indian", saying that there were bleeding hearts in Congress and that they had never set an eye on them. Adrianna found that it took all of her might not to say that she knew then and that they were more civilized then the so called civilized white man. Adrianna contained it with a will she never knew existed. Michaela made it worse by saying that they were here first. Adri smiled at that and some of that will was broken when she gave a snort of laughter.

Chivington then said that they were in the way of progress. Adrianna could not stop what she was about to say and found that Michaela was thinking that same because they said the same thing at the same time: "Progress for whom sir".

That got him riled up and he went off on a little tirade about the "…only way to kill the red rebel is the only way to have peace and quiet". He then stared at both of the women with a look of loathing. Adrianna had enough and angrily got out of her seat. The chair fell onto the ground. The anger she was feeling could not be contained. She was so angry that she started to walk out the door and soon came in. She then walked to about a few feet from the table and kneeled to the ground, putting her hand to her ears and staring at the ground.

Michaela walked to her and talked her back to her seat. Adrianna sat down staring at the wall, full of anger at the situation. The widow looked at her in concern.

"Are you ok Adrianna?"

"Sí, sí! Por supuesto! I mean, of course. I am just…just……..upset at the world of the white man. I have tried to contain this feeling, but you have to, you know. There isn't much you can do about it. I have found that keeping it inside is the best way. There is not much that I can say without angering _them_." Adrianna said that last word with a deep growl, staring at them with the biggest feeling of passion, anger, mistrust and hurt. All of that was etched into the Spaniard's features.

The soldiers did not seem unhinged at all. They seemed to think the whole situation was funny, like she belonged at an asylum. She just gave them that same look, soon stopping to finish her stew.

She vaguely heard Widow Cooper talking about being married and men and there being more women then men, she just needed to take her hand off of the Carlucci knife, massaging the uneven hinges that were spikes, the one feature that made it the Carlucci knife.

She soon could not take it anymore and left abruptly to go to bed, trying to contain it all.

The feelings of anger were resonated in her dreams with the same dreams that she had when she was in college. It was the dreams reliving what happened, the only difference was that she saw Colonel Chivington and not Shaken. She woke up trying to stop the tears from falling from her face. She knew that it was not going to work and she let the tears fall down. She soon thought about her sister and knew that she was going to be off from school and the yearly meetings that they had. She could not leave now; she had to do something about that.

Her sister was going to be upset, but she could not leave Michaela now. She needed her now; she needed all of the allies that she could have. Adrianna got up from the floor she was sleeping from and enlarged one of the chests to full size. This one contained a variety of objects like her quill and parchments. She took out one quill and a piece of parchment. She knew that she had to make a telegraph message for her. It was certainly not the best way to connect her, but she could not risk using the advanced communications inventions that freedom fighters used. She would have to see her in a year from now; she would just have to understand.

About one hundred drafts later she found the right message to send. By that time, it was about six in the morning and so she got dressed and went to the telegraph office. She met that same man that was the mistaken reason that they both were there, who was just getting up. He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Is there something that I can do for you miss?" he asked kindly.

"Yes, I need to send a telegraph. I know that the transcontinental telegraph was put up recently and was wondering if you could send this to the Madrid _Libertad Luchares_ _Escuela_ in Spain?"

He frowned a little and looked a little discouraged.

"I don't know if I can send it overseas ma'am, but I can try?"

She smiled and he blushed a little. She then gave him the parchment and he started to send it but then she stopped him by gently putting her hand on his.

This seemed to make him very nervous and him face became redder and his hand started to shake a little. She smiled then.

"So siento, Señor but I forgot to pay you!" Adrianna started to laugh and the telegraph operator gave a nervous laugh.

"How much?"

"That would be 2 bits for every ten words."

Adrianna searched her pocket and found that she only had a one eagle and ten dollars was more expensive then one telegraph.

"I only have one eagle." He looked at the gold coin and slowly held out his hand, like he didn't want to take it. Adrianna sensed that and tried to put it in his hand. He didn't seem to want to and nervously put his hand in his pocket.

"No! I can't take that much!" he said it forcefully and Adrianna was taken aback at the force. She then smiled tenderly and almost laughed. She then took the coin and put it on the counter. Then she glared at him and soon tapped her foot in annoyance.

"I am not going to leave until you take my money!"

He then lowered himself until he was face to face with her.

"I don't want the coin!" He then threw it and it fell into the mud.

Adrianna looked very angry, crossing her arms and started to shake her head in anger.

"Oh! Oh! So that's how it's going to be! You think I am not going to pay for this! I don't think so! YOU WILL NOT START THAT TELEGRAPH UNTIL I PAY FOR IT! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DO THAT FOR FREE!"

Then he went to his telegraph and started to perform the operation rapidly, as in anger. Adrianna found the coin and started to walk away. When she was about ten feet away, she started to run toward the counter and then jumped onto it. She was soon in the office and the operator continued to do the message.

Soon it was a physical struggle with both of them fighting at the telegraph. The operator tried to continue the operation and Adrianna was trying to stop him. In all of her anger, she could not find the strength to overcome him. They continued this struggle until a new customer came. There was the operator, down on the ground, carrying the telegraph and tapping it. He was on top of Adrianna who was trying to grab it. The customer was Colonel Chivington, who stared at them both in anger.

"What is going on here!" he snapped. The two then got up and the operator put the device back on the counter. Adrianna put both of her hands on the counter and lifted herself up to the air and soon went over the counter, just landing next to the Colonel.

"So, I should expect the telegraph in the next two weeks right?" Adrianna softly, but dangerously asked.

"Yes." The operator sadly said. Adrianna found the coin and gave it to him. He stared at the coin like it was contaminated.

Consider it to be a contribution to you, _Señor_!" Then she walked away, back to the boarding house.

She came back and found Michaela and the Widow talking kindly. They welcomed her and she smiled back.

"What were you doing?" Michaela asked.

"Well, I was sending a telegraph. I needed to tell my sister that I cannot come to Spain this year."

Michaela smiled and looked at her, wearing a slightly worn dress and unkempt hair.

"That must have been some kind of telegraph!" The Widow said.

She pointed a finger at both of the women. "Ooh! You don't know!"

They all started to laugh.

A few hours later they all set out to explore the town with the Widow leading the way. The first people that they met were the reverend at that man that had the corduroy suit and hat, who seemed to be the barber. Being in a better mood, she didn't harbor and ill will, but knew they were probably talking bad about them. All three of the women said hi to them and they said it back, if not forcefully.

"That's Jake Slicker, he's pulled a few teeth, lasted a few brawls and he thinks that makes him a doctor."

Adrianna snorted at that. She had heard of these men who are barbers. A lot of them believed that they were doctors. If they knew what a spleen was or where the jugular is then she might accept him. They would probably pass out during a surgery, the big men that they were.

Michaela put in her two cents: "I see that I have some competition".

"…And from a woman! You see, the only doctoring that women are allowed to do around here is midwiving. You're just lucky; midwives are very recent for a woman."

Michaela then said, "That's a relief, I would really like to meet her."

Adrianna had a feeling that she knew who that was and would even go as far as betting her medical degree on it.

She was right of course when Widow Cooper answered her.

"You already have!"

Adrianna smiled and then walked ahead of them.

"I knew it! I had a feeling it was you!" Michaela stared at the Widow and seemed surprised. "You!"

They then walked to the place where the advertisements were. There was no space whatsoever. Every place was filled with information. One said, "Lookin_ fo a job? Silver mine is open. Signed, Gradest Robuch-June 20th, 1854_". Above everything was the most disturbing sign made out of wood. It said: "_No dogs or Indians_". Adrianna wanted to rip it down, but knew it was not the right way to get lodgings or patients. They wanted their lives saved after all.

To make the situation worse, that same man that she had bumped into yesterday was the owned of the mercantile. He did not like Michaela or her. She didn't need to know that much about the man to know that. He looked angry and stated that there was no space there and wouldn't move any of the other parchments.

Then she looked to her ahead and saw something that she didn't really want to see. There was a woman, with tanned skin and a Mohawk on her head. She took off her glasses and started at her with the darkest eyes that she had ever seen in her life. She looked at Adrianna with the deepest type of loathing that she knew of. She knew who she was; she knew that this was a Santis, the evil royal house of freedom fighters. She knew of her cousin, the Carlucci's and that they kindly ruled over their country with the deepest respect of the human. The Santis were to opposite. They were evil and sadistic monsters who only cared about themselves. She had heard stories of them mutilating bodies when they killed. She had heard that they were into cannibalism and treated the human with disrespect. In her assassin training, she had been told to stay away from them, she couldn't. The Santis walked right at her and didn't stop until she came face to face with Adrianna. This Santis was looking at her like she was analyzing what was the best way to kill her. She then looked at the ring on her hand. Adrianna was recently put it back on, just in case she was to meet a freedom fighter. This ring was a sign of respect; it was also proof that she was an assassin. It told the story of her internal struggle for respect. It also said that she had killed at least 2,000 men during her reign. It was hard to get and she was partly glad that she had it.

Even the ring seemed to scare the Santis, because she walked off, her silky cape billowing in the distance.

Adrianna then looked ahead to see someone else walk in. These people did not have trousers on; they did not have short hair. It was been a few years since she had seen them, but it felt like yesterday that she had said goodbye to them.

They were the real Americans, the people that were here first, before that stupid shopkeeper. The one on the left looked distinguished, he looked like a chief. He was wearing attire that looked to be made of buffalo skin. He was also wearing a headdress. She bowed down at the chief and he shook his head up and down in a silent understanding. The man next to him took her by surprise. He was wearing a shirt that seemed to be made of cotton, except that it was not of a design that she knew of. He was also wearing a series of necklaces that were made of red and white beads. The one weapon that she saw was a tomahawk that seemed to be sharp enough to cut her in half. Even more strange was that he looked to be white! It was so strange that she stared at him a little longer than was normal. She then looked down and saw the most beautiful animal in the world. He looked like a wolf and when she kneeled down to pet him, he didn't growl at all. He even licked her hand!

She knew nothing of the Native Americans, but spoke of the languages that she knew. They looked at her strangely with the first few languages that she spoke. She finally started to speak the language of the Cheyenne people. He answered that he was chief Blackkettle, a man she had heard a little of, but never met.

The store owned pointed at the sign, saying no dogs or Indians. Adrianna looked at the sign and started to laugh. Feeling stronger than she had in years, she walked right at the man getting in his face.

"What is your problem with dogs? That dog looks like he won't bite." Michaela smiled taking the sign down. That angered the Colonel and he put it back up, saying it was private property.

Adrianna crossed her arms, smirking. The old man and the Colonel seemed taken aback at her.

"What is your problem?" The Colonel gruffly asked. Adrianna smiled an almost seductive smile.

"There is no so called Indian!"

"What are you talking about? There are, he's right there!" The old man almost screamed.

"Oh, but señor! That is a Native American, a real American! An Indian would be…well Indian!" Adrianna had started walking around the store, as she was talking.

"I have never been to India, and I don't think this man has either! Does he look like he is from Calcutta?" At that statement, the Colonel left abruptly, like in anger. Michaela smiled as did Charlotte and the old man looked angry.

The mysterious white man with the tomahawk threw it at the sign and it broke for real. This seemed to be a good time to leave to Charlotte and she took both of them out of the store. Adrianna gave the chief one last look and she could swear he had a smile on his face.

The next place was a livery, where they were to look at horses. Charlotte played some type of political game with the blacksmith with didn't seem to want to sell anything to Michaela. Adrianna knew that Michaela had never been on a horse, but she faked it. As they looked at the horses, they all made their analysis of the animals. Michaela did not know what she was talking about and made a complete fool of herself in Adrianna's opinion. Michaela soon enough picked one that she thought had "heart". Adrianna started to laugh and the blacksmith gave her a dirty look. Michaela now had to get on the horse, something that seemed to be a daunting task. She finally was able to put her shoes in the stirrup and try as she might, she could not get up. Adrianna could not contain herself and she started to laugh really hard. Then that mysterious "whidian" as she started to think of him as came by and pushed her up…by her butt.

That upset Michaela a little and so looked at him in anger. He had the wolf beside him who went to Adrianna and she went to pet him. The man gave her the notice that she had put up and she looked at it.

"You took it down!" she exclaimed.

"No, I'm answerin' it." He replied.

They followed him, Adrianna easily got onto the horse with a self righteous smirk. They left the town and into the beautiful landscape. They seemed to be far out of the confines of the town when they reached the house. There it was, looking dilapidated and worn down. There was also a barn that Adrianna decided was hers.

They got out of the horse and Adrianna walked into the barn, coming to an area that was full of some old pieces of hay. She sat down and was reminded of her past, sleeping on the ground, never staying in one place at a time, never having much responsibility except that of her mission.

She came out and found that Michaela was at the house and put her sign, the same sign that used to welcome the patients of her and her father's practice in Boston.

"What do you think?"

"Not much of a shingle?" he replied. He then left and Adrianna had the distinct feeling that they were going to see more of the mysterious white man.

A/N: I really hope you loved it. I wanted to delved more into her character, I really believe that happened here. I hope you liked some of the features that I added and that this chapter gave you a little laugh.


	5. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part Three

Disclaimer: _Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman_ and all things related to this great television show are owned by CBS incorporated. I give my love to Les Moonves again! That also means A&E who bring out the DVD's. I do own Adrianna and freedom fighters and all of the crazy and weird stuff that goes with that.

The next day, Adrianna and Michaela found their way to Colorado Springs, even though they were not sure how that happened. Adrianna was 100 percent sure about one way, while Michaela thought that the opposite direction was the best alternative. After arguing for at least an hour, Adrianna gave up and went Michaela's way. Michaela was correct and Adrianna felt very stupid.

After they did get there, Charlotte and her children decided to help them and they took Michaela's stuff, along with some needed products for living on the frontier. As they went to their new home with the supplies in the wagon, Adrianna had the strangest feeling that they were being watched. Since the wagon had no real room for anyone more, Adrianna got on the horse and rode it, and put herself in deep thought.

As Charlotte and Michaela were talking, Adrianna felt that same feeling come over her. It was soon a reality when she saw twenty or so men and women stop the wagon. These people had tanned skin and dark eyes. They were wearing velvet pants with the freedom fighter symbol. The men were shirtless while the women wore some type of cover for their chest that seemed to be made of the same material as their pants with the freedom fighter symbol in the middle. All of their clothes were black. They also had similar branding tattoos that Adrianna wore.

On their upper left arm was the tattoo that signified what they were. Adrianna knew of the different tattoos that described the blood that they were. Most of them were pureblood freedom fighters, so there was the freedom fighter symbol of two f's on each other. Below it said freedom fighters in Spanish: _libertad luchares._ If one was part _sádico_, the name for those that were normal, mortal like Adrianna, then there would be the word _sádico_ below _libertad luchares_. Pureblood _sádicos_ were those like Michaela and Charlotte and everyone else. The symbols were different if one was part witch or part scorpion. If one was a female, they would have powers which ranged from person to person. That symbol would be represented in a color tattoo below the freedom fighter symbol. All of the females had different tattoos. One was of a dog and showed that she could talk and even turn into animals. One was of ice and showed that she could manipulate ice. One was of fire and showed that she could manipulate fire. They all seemed to be pureblood, except for five or six. On the upper right arm were the family crests. The top one was always the father and the mother's was below that. Most seemed to have similar crests like they were all related. Adrianna had never been in this area before and could not tell if they were hostile or not. She knew that her ring and the special symbol on her left hand would say something to them. She had put a little bit of gauze on it, given by her cousin that had a watermark of the Carlucci crest on it. It would not come off unless she said _abierto_ or open.

Adrianna stared straight at the supposed leader, who was in the middle, as they were in a V shape. She had brown eyes and curly hair that went to her shoulders. She also had a mole that was to the left of her lip. She averted her gaze to Adrianna as she got off her horse and walked toward the freedom fighter, never leaving her gaze. Adrianna finally came to her and put up her left hand. There was the symbol of a female royal, the freedom fighter symbol etched in her hand, like it was carved. All of the other freedom fighters bowed their heads in respect as far as they could while still staying on the horse. The leader never bowed and stared at her with contempt but understanding of who she was.

"What do you want Carlucci?" she asked with a thick, but rough Spanish accent and a look of anger. She must have seen the watermark, thought Adrianna.

"I am asking with all of the sincerity in my heart that me and my company here be able to move on, without sacrifice." Adrianna said in her most diplomatic voice that she could render.

The leader looked at everyone else with strict scrutiny. Everyone looked very scared and didn't say a thing as the leader stared at them in malice. As she stared at them, she stared at the ring on her finger in a little more depth then she had before. Her eyes widened and she roughly grabbed her hand.

"I know who you are Martiz!" she said in shock. It was like realization had finally come to her. She then smiled.

"I'm very sorry about this. I had overheard that Santis talk about a rich spoiled freedom fighter princess coming here and I left and found some brothers and sisters to kill you. Now that I know who you really are, I am terribly sorry. I will tell the rest of our people who you are and will make sure that you are always safe. I also welcome you at our lodgings whenever you desire. You can now leave as you wanted." All of the freedom fighters left on their horses, saluting Adrianna.

Adrianna looked back at everyone, who looked very stunned. The blonde girl, Colleen, looked astonished and was the first to talk.

"You are a princess?"

"Sí, I am a princess for the royal house of Carlucci. I do not really talk to them since as I said a couple of days ago; I have only met him in the last few years. The king is my cousin and we have made an agreement that he pay for me and my sister's schooling. He feels bad for our parents dying and against my will, wants to give me more money. I don't need his money at all. Money cannot replace love; it also cannot rectify the past."

Adrianna soon frowned at what she said. Everyone one else could tell that it was a hard subject for Adrianna and didn't say much of anything else. Even though they were wondering what it was about her ring that caused a change in the freedom fighter woman?

They soon found their way home in silence to the homestead. Matthew and little Brian unpacked the items while Adrianna went into the barn to set up her home in the barn. Michaela went into her new home as did Charlotte and Colleen.

It did not take Adrianna long to set up her house. She enlarged her clothes chest and put it outside of the barn that was away from the house. She found an old and rusted pitchfork and moved all of the limited amounts of hay into the biggest stall. Once she did that, she enlarged a black chest that carried bedding supplies. She took out some sheets and blankets and a pillow and put it over the hay. After a few minutes Adrianna tested out her new "bed". It was surprisingly comfortable; of course Adrianna was used to sleeping in the most torturous places. She made that chest smaller and soon enlarged a newer chest that contained a variety of weapons and inventions. There were communications devices that were connected to the devices of the local f.f.t.t. (freedom fighter time travel) agents. As a freedom fighter, she saved space in this chest by having about 100 "weapons". These weapons looked just like a black rectangular object with a series of knobs. What was really great about this weapon was that it contained a variety of weapons that with the pulling of the knob toward a certain direction could turn into a certain weapon. There were mostly guns and swords of different sizes on it. Adrianna loved the weapon since it was so versatile and easy to handle once it was mastered, which could take years. Adrianna also carried the variety of bullets and darts that were needed to supply the weapons.

Adrianna took a velvet black scarf with two long pockets and wrapped it around her middle. She then took two of the weapons and put one in each pocket. She then dressed into a more traditional freedom fighter outfit that consisted of a long skirt and a tight long shirt, all black. She also wore a scarf that she tied around her neck and long socks and a special fingerless black glove to cover her left hand. Lastly she went to the chest and found one pair of dark, black sunglasses similar to the one that Santis wore yesterday. She then made the chest miniature and put that in her bag next to the makeshift bed.

Adrianna walked into the main house where she saw everyone except Matthew. Colleen was dusting off the house, Charlotte was teaching Michaela how to sweep a broom and Brian was letting the curiosity get to him and took Michaela's medical bag and took out a reflex hammer. He started to play with it and Adrianna stared at him, like he was a specimen that she was studying.

"What's this Dr. Mike?" asked Brian.

"Brian, put that back down!" answered his mother.

"No that's all right, so long as you're careful." Michaela answered.

"It looks like a tomahawk." Brian said.

"Yeah, everything is Indian to you." Matthew abruptly said. He had been outside chopping wood.

Adrianna smiled at the situation. She had worked with reflexes briefly in her year of research. She knew enough to tell that the reflexes were unlearned responses to stimuli and involve these things called neurons or nerves cells.

"Brian's Cheyenne crazy." explained Colleen.

"Sully has a tomahawk." Brian proudly said. Adrianna came closer and Matthew looked at her outfit and smiled, thinking that she looked very ridiculous.

"So I've seen" answered Michaela while Adrianna felt that she had been silent too long.

"Michaela, I think that tomahawks are useful weapons." Adrianna said with her arms crossed. Michaela wanted to laugh at her.

"You seem to be the expert on this." Adrianna smiled at her as she walked closer to her.

"I had a friend in college names Caroline Benson, who I called Carly. She was raised by an adopted family, one of them a woodcutter. Lets just say that he passed her knowledge of the tomahawk to her and then she decided one day to tell me about all of the best type of tomahawks as she drunk about ten glasses of beer. I can tell you all about the finer points of tomahawk making. That Sully with all of his mysteriousness, knows how that tomahawk works.

At that everyone started to laugh. Michaela then started to talk, "Is Carly the one that kept asking stupid questions throughout the whole procedure?" Adrianna smiled, remembering the day the Michaela came to campus and changed her life.

"Carly was always like that. She had a nice life; her adopted family treated her well."

"Your ma and pa treat you well, right?" Brian answered, clearly forgetting that her parents were dead.

Adrianna felt the pain come back, something that was clearly forgotten in the strangeness of the past day. She never liked thinking about them, a lot of times she would try to repress the thoughts, but that didn't work here. Try as she might, she could not just stop thinking about what happened. One slow tear fell from her face and Brian looked upset.

"I'm sorry Doctor Addy!" Adrianna kneeled down and gave him a kind smile.

"I know Brian that you didn't mean it. The truth is that my parents died of a virus when I was eight years old. It is really sad, even to this day. I miss my ma and pa a lot. Come here." Brian hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. Adrianna smiled and was reminded of her sister at that age. Brian was still holding the reflex hammer and Michaela took him and carried him up to the table and hit him on the knee where it went straight up.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Do it again!"

Michaela smiled and told him that she was testing his reflexes.

"What are reflexes?" asked Colleen.

"They are something that tells me about your brain." Michaela said in a voice that reminded Adrianna of one of her professors.

"His knee is telling you something about his head? Now that sounds like a bit of malarkey!" Matthew said.

Adrianna was still very saddened by thinking about her parents but felt that it was time to show that she was a doctor. She walked right to Brian and smiled.

"Señor Cooper! It is all about the brain. You see, the brain controls all that you do. We are still trying to figure out how the brain works, but we do know a little. When you think, the brain is at work…when you eat, the brain is at work. Think about it. It is a little overwhelming to think about it, but there is always a brain to whatever you do. Reflexes are interesting to study, as I did for a couple of months. Beside the traditional knee-jerk reflex that you just saw, there are also reflexes that you probably didn't know were reflexes. One is that of swallowing our food and blinking when smoke comes at our face."

When Adrianna was done, everyone looked stunned. That was probably not what they expected to hear.

"Sorry, I get a little carried away!" They all laughed.

After that strange moment, everyone got back to work. Michaela learned how to get eggs from a chicken and Adrianna taught Brian a few defensive moves…when Charlotte was not looking of course. Charlotte continued her cleaning of the house and Matthew continued cutting wood.

Soon enough, it was time to leave and Adrianna felt a little sad. She had started to like the little Brian. He was very adorable and loving. Michaela thanked Charlotte and her children, as did Michaela. Brian said goodbye to Adrianna and they soon left.

That night Adrianna went and lay down on her bed, thinking of the day. She had been fine, laughing, joking, being sarcastic; it was really what kept her moving. If she forgot about her troubles and was living and around people that she could be relaxed around, it would be ok. It would be one thing that would make her think about her parents. It was so easy to remember them. One would think that time heals all wounds. That was not true. She was so traumatized by what happened that everyday could be a constant battle for her sanity. The pain would come and she couldn't stop it. She hid it from most of the world, not wanted them to know. She hid it from her sister and everyone that she was close too. If she was really going to be honest with herself, she would say that she was never close to anyone. Every person never got that close. They never knew her constant struggle. They never knew what it was like to see your parents and sister brutally murdered. It made her angry sometimes. Why her? Why not someone else? Couldn't others feel the type of pain she had? She cried herself to sleep that night, knowing that could not stop it, just stop it for a little while.

Adrianna took the reigns of the horse that day, knowing that Michaela really did not know what she was doing. They were to go to church and hopefully find potential patients. Adrianna knew that there was a slim chance that was going to happen, they went anyway. There was the town, all white starring at the strange Spaniard and the rich woman from the east. Michaela looked like she was in Boston and Adrianna looked…just weird.

When they met Charlotte and the children, Brian ran up to Adrianna and hugged her. Brian started to talk about what had happened to him in the next few days and she soon came to Horace. They both cornered each other and stared at each other like they were anticipating their next move. Horace gave her the telegraph and the coin.

Adrianna stared at the coin and put it angrily in her pocket. She then thanked him sarcastically and left the church. Not really in the mood to be called a dirty Mexican, she went to talk to the real American chief and Sully when she was stopped.

There was that Santis, starring at her and coming toward her. She wanted a fight, but Adrianna knew that it was not worth it to Michaela and walked in the opposite direction but the Santis grabbed her by her arms and pushed her toward her. Santis had her arms so that they were locked with hers and took out a knife and put it to her neck.

"So this is the infamous hulk assassin! I have wanted to get to know you for a while!" she said it so sadistically that Adrianna felt some fear in her gut. She was soon pushed down roughly and the knife cut her throat. It was not deep and barely touched her, but as Adrianna knew, the neck was full of veins and any cut would bleed.

The Santis came at her, but Adrianna had fast reflexes and was up in the air, holding her weapon threatingly at the Santis. The Santis took back her knife and walked back. Adrianna smiled and looked for Michaela's medical bag, but found that she was not at the church but in the mob of the town. She walked as fast as she could, and found Michaela checking the heart of a patient who had obviously fell. The old man, Loren, found Michaela with his wife and took her away. Michaela soon found Adrianna and looked concerned. Adrianna said that it was a small cut and started to go through her supplies to stop the bleeding and cover the cut.

After Loren shoed away Michaela, Adrianna wanted to laugh, but it hurt too much. Michaela looked at her a little angry.

"What are you laughing at?" Michaela angrily asked.

"Bad day huh?" Adrianna decided that this was a good time to leave and so she decided to take a walk.

As she walked to the outskirts of town, she was met by the real leader of a freedom fighter tribe. She had mud covered all over her body and was wearing what looked like black cloth all over her body. She looked stern but understanding and was surrounded by ten attendants; all female who were not wearing mud but the same clothes as those that she met the other day with special designs on their clothes.

Adrianna bowed to the leader and she did the same. She looked at her with sadness and started to speak to her in Spanish.

"You look sad, like you're missing something." She kindly said.

"You are wise, as all great rulers are." Adrianna answered.

"I am just a humble ruler of a small but kind sanctuary for freedom fighters, even those of the house Santis. I see that you are with that rich white woman. What is your use of this town?"

"We want to start a medical practice. We are both doctors, but I specialize in all matters of the brain."

She looked impressed and smiled. All of them looked at the cemetery where Michaela and Sully were talking. Michaela looked upset at something Sully said. Adrianna looked back at the ruler and realized that she was studying her. Adrianna looked at her and blushed.

"Why do you want to study me? I am not interesting." Adrianna bluntly said.

"Oh, but you are Doctor. You do not feel ashamed to dress like a freedom fighter in the midst of the white man. Many freedom fighters hide who they are, turn themselves into something that they are not. You are smart as all freedom fighters are and have used that to your advantage."

By this time the Santis had come by and was looking at Adrianna with malice. The ruler did not look upset but talked to her in a kind voice.

"Princess Aldamora Santis, this is Doctor Adrianna Martiz." Adrianna looked at the ruler in surprise, wondering how she realized what her name was. The Santis looked straight at her, still angry.

"Aldamora is in charge of my security, you are but a threat to her. That is why she is hostile to you."

When Adrianna heard that, it didn't surprise her. She knew that Santis all had big egos and that they didn't like people messing around in their business. Adrianna did not need to have any problems.

"Well then I want to apologize to you Aldamora. I do not want any type of problem with you. You are correct in believing that I am a former assassin. I have realized that killing people that are of the same profession as those that killed my parents will not help. I am not the violent person anymore. I will not kill anymore. I am trying to change my life, trying to become someone different. I have even tried to become more outgoing. It is not working well and I will have to stop it. I only want peace and will do whatever to obtain it."

Aldamora looked like she understood but didn't trust the doctor. She looked like she was about to strike Adrianna but the leader stopped her. She put her hand in front of her to stop her. She then looked straight at Aldamora with the most sincere look of understanding.

"Aldamora, you came to me years ago, homeless, scared, alone and I took you in. I didn't need to do that; you are a Sandoval after all! Your blood is evil and you can be stereotyped as a monster. You are far from home, living with people who didn't love and understand you at first. You are different from your family; you love and understand people, but still have the blood of a Santis in you. You are now accepted as an equal. I ask you to think of what it was like when you were new. Understand that and treat doctor Martiz with respect. Respect her wishes."

Aldamora looked at Adrianna and for the first time, she didn't look at her with contempt but acceptance. She gave her a half smile and left. The leader looked at Adrianna and smiled.

"If you need help, please come. You do not need to be something you are not. Be yourself." Her and her people soon left, leaving Adrianna with a sense of purpose that she didn't think she had. She soon met with Michaela and they soon left, Adrianna still holding the bloodstained telegraph in her hand.

That night, Michaela and Adrianna sat and had dinner. Michaela was not a cook and so after almost burning down the house, she decided that it was best that Adrianna cook something. She took the eggs and some potatoes that were given to them by Charlotte and made some traditional food from Spain: a Spanish omelet. Michaela loved it and complimented her. In the past two days, they had not talked that much to each other and needed some time to talk.

Michaela bit into her omelet and looked at the Spaniard.

"You do not seem to be acting like yourself lately. You are usually silent, keeping to yourself. What is wrong?" Michaela asked concerned.

Adrianna looked up and gave Michaela a look of sadness with her deep brown eyes.

"Lo siento, I am just…I don't like it here. I hate them, the stupid town!" she got up, her dark eyes piercing and full of hot anger. She started to walk around and finally stopped at the window, leaning against it.

"When I first came here, I could tell that they were all racist. I could tell that we were not going to be accepted as doctors." A tear fell down from her face and she closed her eyes.

"When I first came here, I did something strange. I did a slip-jump move and landed on the mud. A pregnant woman got a little mud on her and looked like she just got shot. The husband came up to me and put some mud on my face. He said that I was now a true dirty Mexican. I had never felt so low… so fucking disgusting!" she opened her eyes and she looked both hurt and angry.

Michaela stood up and went to her young friend and hugged her from the back. Adrianna tried to stop the tears from falling, but she couldn't contain herself. She started to cry very hard and fell to the ground, Michaela trying to console her.

All of the pain that she was feeling came out. This happened sometimes, she would stop pretending that everything was all right and that she was hurt for real. She fell onto the ground in a thump yelling "Mamá! Mamá! Lo siento!" through her tears. She felt like nothing, like trash. She felt that it was her fault, that she was to blame for her parent's death. She was always getting into trouble, defying her parents word. She would make friends with the whites and still be friends with them when their parents objected. She would disrespect her mother and pick on her. She was punished by god; she was bad and deserved the pain.


	6. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part Four

Disclaimer: As you know, all of the recognizable characters, locals, locations belong to CBS incorporated. Adrianna and the very bad song in this chapter belong to me. Enjoy!

After the emotional breakdown Adrianna kept to herself. She stayed away from Michaela, staying in the barn taking care of the horses. She also found time to explore the frontier and found an area less than a mile away where she practiced warrior skills. She thought that it was good to get back to the routine that she had as an assassin. It was a way to get back in physical shape. She was coming back one day thinking that Michaela was going to be there struggling at some type of chore but she was not. She was not even there. _Where could she be?_ Wondered Adrianna as she got out of her freedom fighter exercise clothes and a slim black dress that had frizzes on the bottom, grabbing a horse that she bought from the local freedom fighter tribe.

She came in town stopping at the screams that she heard in Charlotte's boarding house. She jumped off her horse and ran into the boarding house. She finally came to a room upstairs and there was Charlotte, Michaela and a pregnant woman all sweaty. Adrianna widened her eyes.

"We have a patient?"

Michaela nodded her head and Adrianna went up to the patient and tried to cool her with a wet cloth. She tried to smile at her and she came to the realization that this was the woman who she accidentally splashed mud on. She tried to say she was sorry but Adrianna shook her head.

"It doesn't matter; you just concentrate on giving birth." She smiled and swore that the woman had a tear fall from her face.

Adrianna looked at Michaela and Charlotte. She looked very serious.

"What is wrong here?"

"The baby will not come out." Answered Michaela. Adrianna looked alarmed; she could tell that this was not a normal birth and that some serious injury could occur.

Michaela had already gave her the ether and was about to perform a cesarean section. Charlotte did not think it was a good idea, but Adrianna calmed her as Michaela performed the operation.

"This happens sometimes. Michaela will make an incision and take out the baby through her abdomen. It's ok, Michaela is a great surgeon."

It seemed to calm down Charlotte a little.

When the baby was out, Adrianna noticed that it wasn't breathing and went to it.

"This baby is not breathing. I want you to massage the windpipe!" Charlotte did as she was told, but there was no difference, the baby was still not breathing.

"Oi! Charlotte I knew this is going to sound weird, but I want you to take the baby and hold it upside down by its heels. Then I want you to slap him."

Charlotte looked at her strangely. Michaela nodded saying that Adrianna was correct. She did as Adrianna told and soon enough the baby started to cry. They all gave a grateful laugh. Adrianna was very happy herself and she started to cry a little. She then went to Charlotte and gave her a grateful look.

"Charlotte, can I bring her the baby?"

Charlotte smiled and handed her the baby. She went to the mother who was called Emily and handed her the baby. She smiled and gladly took her son. She looked at Adrianna with a very grateful smile.

"If I was you, I would have never done this. Thank you doctor. You are good person."

Adrianna had tears falling from her face, never being treated like this in her life. A white person was kind and considerate to her. That rarely happened to her.

One would think that an event like that would sway people to understanding that Adrianna and Michaela were good doctors. Of course in typical white man fashion, they didn't care. Adrianna was mad, but knew that there was nothing that she could do. She continued to keep to herself and practice new fighting styles. As the months passed Adrianna wondered if they would go home, if this was just a farce staying here. She did like it here, but her money was running out, she needed to do something. One day she decided to venture into town, taking the last remaining amount of her money to buy some food. Before she even came there, she saw Michaela going to the boarding house, her hand on her left cheek. She followed Michaela and she went in to talk to Charlotte.

By the time she came in Michaela told Charlotte that she had pulled her tooth. Charlotte and Adrianna had both said "what!" in unison. Adrianna walked up to Michaela and had a strange look on her face.

"Jake Slicker said it had to go." She said calmly, still holding her hand to her cheek.

Adrianna smirked, wondering if Michaela had truly lost her mind. The conditions were certainly hot.

"What were you thinking?" asked Adrianna.

Michaela just ignored Adrianna, pacing the room. Charlotte looked like she realized something.

"There was nothing wrong with your tooth was it?" she asked.

Michaela answered no and turned around and answered yes. She looked at Charlotte and Adrianna like she was sorry. Charlotte then scolded her, "You ought to be ashamed! Letting that bully yank a perfectly good tooth out of your head!"

Adrianna smirked knowing that this was a brilliant but painful idea. She went to Michaela and hugged her smiling.

"Michaela. I wondered if you were insane. When I saw you coming out of that white man's barber shop, I could tell that you had given into his primitive ways of so-called doctoring. I know that heat causes many people to act irrational, killing sometimes. Now as I think about it, I must applaud you in your bravery. I would never go to that incompetent barber!" Adrianna started to laugh.

Michaela looked at her like she was crazy. Charlotte was laughing herself.

"It did take guts, and a man cannot ignore that!"

The subject soon changed to love when Michaela asked Charlotte about her dead husband. Adrianna found a seat herself, out of the way, worried that this was going to be a hard moment for her. She looked at Michaela, sipping tea with a sad look on her face.

"He didn't, as far as I know, he's alive and kicking somewhere." She answered. Adrianna was surprised, she would have never known, and she had the composure of a widow. Michaela asked the question that Adrianna wanted to know.

"But everyone calls you Widow Cooper?"

"Well…that's the town folks way of being nice and polite." She started to cook something, but Adrianna did not know what it was because she was so surprised at what she had said. Her husband was still alive out in the world. She wanted to know more about this man.

"We had a farm over there in Topeka. It took us four years to get that thing going. Then one day, he just up and sold it, he didn't even ask me! He just came in one morning and said '_We're going mining for some gold up in Pike's Peak!_'" She came closer to the two women when she said the last statement.

Michaela shook her head and started to tell her story. "My fiancée never once mentioned the war. Until he came to dinner wearing an officers' uniform and announced that he was leaving in two days."

Michaela scoffed and said, "Two days!"

Both women soon looked at Adrianna, silently asking about her chances with love. She looked at them both, silently answering by getting up.

"You both have stories about men that put them in a bad light. I have a story myself, a story about a man that I was in love with. About a relationship that ended in sadness." Adrianna sat down, looking out in the distance at nothing.

"My encounter with love was different from yours. When me and my little sister left our orphanage and lived with my mother's family, it was a big adjustment. I found myself overwhelmed with it all. I tried to delve myself in training. It didn't work out. That was until I met Jasón. He was best friends with my cousin Antonio. He was from a poor family that was taken in when his mother died. When I met him, we both found that we had a lot in common. One was that we were poor in our hearts and so we forged a bond. We became best friends and I told him my deepest and darkest secrets. He was the only person I was ever close to." Adrianna stopped and looked at the older women. They both looked at her and gave her a sad smile.

"So what happened?" asked Charlotte. As she said that Adrianna sat up and abruptly went to the window.

She looked around at them with an anguished look on her face. "He was charged with the murder of my uncle. He killed him and tried to sway the government to pass laws to protect less fortunate people. He tried to take over the country, upset with the way that poor people were treated by everyone. It wasn't my uncle's fault but he blamed him anyway. He was charged with treason and murder and sent to a jail house in the Santis country. All you need to know about that jail is that it's torture and he would never get out. I will never see him again…" Adrianna trailed off and tried to feign a smile, it didn't work.

The other women smiled and gave her a small hug. She smiled.

"Men! You can't be dependant on them!" Charlotte said exasperated. She then took a white cloth that she was holding and put it in a pitcher full of water.

"When that mine went bust…Huh! My husband, he lost his good sense! He just up and disappeared." She went over to Michaela and continued to tell her story.

"…With my money sock!" Adrianna could not believe it. This man was someone who took advantage of her.

Michaela apologized as did Adrianna. Charlotte said that what was done is done and they kept it to that.

Michaela talked about her relationship with her fiancée, but Adrianna had had enough. When she thought of Jasón, she always felt sad. She was in love with him and through the two years that she trained to become an assassin they became closer. Adrianna did not lie about the events that had happened; she just never told them that she was an assassin. She walked out of the boarding house and didn't feel like being treated like nothing, so she decided that it was best to go home and read that telegraph that her sister had given her so long ago.

As she went onto her horse and thought about Jasón. When she left and went to her first assignment she told him that she would see him again and they would marry. She didn't know what he was going to do. She didn't know that that last goodbye kiss was going to be the last and that she was never going to see him again.

She went home and took off her boots and sat down on her bed. The telegraph was a little crinkled and still had the blood stains from when Santis cut her. She wasn't sure why she didn't read it before, she was probably saying hello. She just missed her sister so much that she wanted to wait for that exact moment. This was it. She then started to read it.

"_You miss me huh? You want to see me. There is not much that I can say here in the limited space that I have. Reply back when you start to make sense. (Not that you have before.) weir uaad fhfgnv eioreu oiru ewoi must mean something interesting."_

Adrianna smirked remembering the time that the telegraph was given. Her fight with the telegraph man that she soon realized was named Horace Bing must have sent something weird. The only thing that was intelligible was the address of the place it was to be sent to.

Time went by so slow at this place. Adrianna realized that a month had gone by in which they both did not get one patient. She started to have a routine of working out and meditating. She also spent time at the local freedom fighter tribe, learning from others. They did not like the white man and would not allow her to practice medicine and were not that considerate with her. The only time that she did not get treated badly was when the leader/chief was there. She blamed it on Santis, especially when one day she caught her smiling at her.

Adrianna felt anger boiling inside her and wanted to confront her, but she didn't want to give into violence, she just left. After that moment, she left and spent a lot of time alone; the only time in that month that she ventured out was to reply to her sister's telegraph. Unlike the previous time, there was no fight and Horace still did not ask for money.

After a while Adrianna got used to the loneliness but one day she decided to venture into town. She was walking by the blacksmiths when she overheard him and Michaela talking. According to him, there was going to be a new doctor. She felt anger boiling inside her. It didn't seem fair. Whenever she was away from the whites, she always was at her most dangerous. She would not follow the silent rules of a woman staying out of business. Michaela was on her horse and saw Adrianna.

"I think that it's time that we talk to this supposed reverend." Adrianna said and Michaela shook her head, too angry to think.

They both rode over to the church where it looked like a quilting bee was showing a quilt that they had supposedly made. Adrianna was so angry that she didn't even know what Michaela was saying at first.

She got off her horse and walked to the reverend who stated that Michaela being a doctor was a matter of opinion. Adrianna was so angry that she grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.

"What the hell is your problem? You think that Michaela and I are not doctors because we're women? WE BOTH WENT TO SCHOOL TO STUDY MEDICINE! We know how to treat illnesses and perform surgeries. Does that stupid barber know how to do that? How many years of medical school did he go through. You call yourself a reverend? You are not a man of the church! You treat those around you with disrespect! You are a demon!"

Adrianna then walked away angry. The reverend and the other women were so surprised that they were speechless. Adrianna was about to get on her horse when she saw Brian yell to them both. He said that Charlotte was bitten by a rattlesnake.

Adrianna stared at Michaela for a split second before running with Brian. Her latest conditioning caused her to run pretty fast and not get tired for about four or five minutes. She then decided to pick up Brian and got a little tired when she ran to the boarding house to find Charlotte at the bed, exhausted. Adrianna checked her pulse and realized that it was weak, she also could see where the bite occurred and it didn't look good. Soon the reverend and Michaela came and she told them of her condition.

"Her pulse is weakening, her breathing is labored, and she looks to have a fever. She must have been bitten quite a while ago, look at the area of entry. I don't know if administrating an anti-poison medicine will work." Michaela ignored Adrianna and gave the children instructions. Adrianna felt very hurt and sat back.

Matthew brought some water and Colleen some pillows. As the reverend put up her blanket, Adrianna swallowed her pride and took Brian into her lap and found a cloth that she dipped into the bucket of water. She then put it all over her face, trying to cool her down.

"Ok Michaela, start making that drug. You are just wasting time. Don't argue with me either. If that gives you hope, then do it. ¡Señora Cooper, ahora es el tiempo a dice adiós a sus hijos!" Adriana was so upset and saddened that she forgot that she was speaking Spanish. She breathed for a second and decided that it was best not to say what she had said in English. It would just upset the children. Instead she laid back and started to sing a song that her mother used to sing to her. It would always calm her.

_No llore mi amor, _

_yo estoy aquí para usted. _

_Cuándo usted se siente triste, _

_yo le haré feliz. _

_Cuándo usted es dolido, _

_yo lo haré mejor._

_Usted es mi amor, _

_y siempre será._

As she was singing Charlotte started to talk confused about where she was. Michaela gave Colleen something for her to drink. She passed out briefly before drinking and Colleen got upset. Michaela checked her pulse and could tell that it was deteriorating. She gave Michaela one last request: to take care of her children. Michaela did not know that much about children and told her that much. Michaela promised and so Charlotte made her last requests. Soon enough Michaela started to make the anti-poison medicine, but it was too late because that was when she passed out and death took over her.

The reverend stopped her and Adrianna looked at Michaela with the look of sadness that she seemed to always have on her face. She took Brian off her lap, knowing that he would want to hug his mother. It of course happened, the tears fell, the sadness enveloped.

Adrianna sat up, tears in her eyes. She knew how it felt to see some die, someone who you loved die. Forever in her head, she would see her mother on the floor, naked, all covered with blood and her father unrecognizable. In a way it was sadder to not see any blood, because it made it look like they were alive and way easier to deny. That was how she first thought about Alejandra, who only had a gun shot in her head. The way she was lying, Adrianna had then thought that she was just sleeping.

Whether or not she and the children wanted to believe it, she was dead….

In case you wanted the translation to that song…

_Don't cry my love,_

_I am here for you._

_When you feel sad,_

_I will make you happy._

_When you are hurt,_

_I will make it better._

_You are my love,_

_and will always be._

I am not a very good poet, but it sounds great in Spanish!

Also the translation to the sentence that Adri says is: _Mrs. Cooper, now is the time to say goodbye to your children!_ As you can tell, she was trying not to upset them by translating it.

Also, if you are fluent in Spanish then I am sorry. I am not that good at Spanish, but good enough to smack together a few sentences and use 


	7. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part Five

Disclaimer: I do not own DQMW and anything else that you recognize. Adrianna and all of her painful feelings belong to me. Now reply…either here or at the Dr. Quinn forums.

Adrianna could sense the sadness and anger around her. She took it in and knew that all three kids were going to find it hard to adjust to life without their mother. Brian was the youngest and least understanding of the situation. She was only a few years older than him when her parents and sister were killed and so knew a little of what he was feeling. She also knew that he would not understand and probably think that their mother was really alive. Colleen seemed nice to Michaela and did not say much. She was silently sad, mourning for her mother by crying at night when she thought that everyone was asleep. Now Matthew had gone in anger, hating Michaela and her. At the funeral he gave the shovel to the barber instead of Michaela.

During the funeral, Adrianna felt like an outsider. She never had a real funeral for her parents and sister and never felt part of a close knit community. She realized that will all of their faults, the whites of this community were close. She didn't want to be part of this and so she went to Sully and his dog. He was standing by the tree and she lowered her head during the funeral. When it was finally done she pet his wolf and nodded her head to Sully, he did the same and she went home.

After it was decided that the boarding house needed to be foreclosed due to unpaid bills and that the children were to move and live with Michaela and Sully, Adrianna knew that this was not going to be easy. The day that they came, Adrianna decided that she was going to stay home and rest. This was the first day that she had done nothing and found that the day was longer than usual. She heard a wagon approach and knew it was the children. She put on a more traditional freedom fighter dress. As with most freedom fighter dresses, it was made for physical activity, something that Adrianna really liked about their outfits. She hated the corsets and dresses that white women wore, since it purposely made women feel like they were weak and pathetic. This dress always caused white men to look at her twice since it looked like she just wrapped gauze around her body, except that the color was black. The gauze started at her arms where it wrapped around her and stopped just short of her shoulders. It continued at the way top of her cleavage and continued to the end of her abdomen. Then it continued to make a skirt that flowed freely. The skirt ended at her boots and covered her long black socks. She was also wearing her special freedom fighter glasses.

She heard Matthew say that the wagon and things were theirs and said he was sleeping in the barn. He went in and bumped into Adrianna.

"Do you sleep here?" he asked angry. Adrianna gave him a scrutinizing stare and walked out of the barn. She walked next to Michaela who stared at her like she was crazy.

"I sleep in the biggest stall; I am hardly there, except at night. You can sleep in the little enclave if you wish." Adrianna smiled and went to the wagon. Brian did not look very happy to be there, and either did Colleen. She walked up to Brian and looked him in the eye.

"You want to be with your Madre sí?" she asked Brian and Colleen. They looked at her confused.

"What does Madre sí mean?" asked Brian. Adrianna smiled and picked him up from the wagon and held him.

"Madre means mother and sí means yes." She put Brian down and frowned.

She then stood up and looked at all of the three children. "I know how you feel. You are angry and confused. Why did this happen to me? Was it my fault? I was eight when I lost my parents to a deadly sickness. I had to take my little four month-old sister and take care of her. Unlike you, I was forced to live on an orphanage where I was treated badly because of my skin color and accent." They all looked surprised at her declaration.

"I and Michaela will take care of you the best we can. I took care of my sister and she is now sixteen, and is a good kid…at least I think so." Brian laughed and went to hug Adrianna. Colleen smiled, but Matthew did not look very amused.

"Where is this sister?" he asked. "Why should we trust you? Look at yourself. I would not trust you to take care of a fly!"

He then went to her face and said, "You think you will be our mother?"

Adrianna turned her face to the side and stared at him angrily.

"Sometime you have no choice in the matter. My mother died and I was taking care of my sister. You're getting off easy. I am had to work my whole life for what I got. My whole life I have been treated differently from others because I am from Spain. I am treated even worse because I am a freedom fighter and have a different culture. You don't want to be my enemy!" She looked at him in anger. Michaela came over and put her arm on her shoulder. For the first time Adrianna shoved off her hand and sat on the deck of the house.

Michaela walked up to Matthew and tried to make amends with Matthew. He didn't look interested at all.

Colleen was now off the wagon and standing next to Brian.

"I want to go home!" he said, angry. Adrianna looked at him and thought of herself when her parents and little sister had died. She wanted it to be the way it was, with her mother but it could never be.

"You cannot change the past. When you think that way, you become sadder." He then started to run and Adrianna went after him, as did everyone else.

"Where are you going?" asked Matthew.

"I'm running away to live with the Cheyenne. Let go!" he screamed.

"Calm down!" Matthew said.

Adrianna nodded her head and said nothing. She instead kneeled down and looked at Brian.

He struggled and soon enough went to hug Adrianna and started to cry. She flinched at his touch and fell on the ground and became a little unnerved. He didn't realize what had happened, but instead tried to find her; he instead found Michaela and cried on her dress.

Adrianna laid there, confused about her reaction to Brian. She stood up and put her head on her forehead. She shook her head and walked back to the barn, feeling apart from everyone else.

Adrianna never considered her weak. She was strong. She was an expert at many fighting styles and she couldn't forget her power, one that was very rare and only came around in a family every 600 years. As she sat in the wagon to go to town and buy supplies, she felt weak. She was afraid of a little boy who would never cause harm to her.

If she was going to be honest with herself, she was afraid of being close to anyone. She kept to herself, even to Michaela. She tried, but was afraid that they would die like her little sister and parents did. She even treated Isabella like that.

They finally came to the mercantile. Adrianna walked in telling herself that she would never get close to anyone and never say anything out of line. She just couldn't do it anymore.

She watched as Brian broke a jar with candy and as the shopkeeper scolded him. $1.50 was put on the bill and Michaela told Brian that he had to clean the jar. He actually told her that he hated her and Adrianna just stood there. She felt pain, so much that she had to leave the store.

Michaela came out a little while later, saying that she had to send for some digitalis. Adrianna walked with her and said nothing. Michaela looked at Adrianna concerned.

"What is wrong Ann?" she asked looking concerned.

"I don't want to talk about it. Just leave me alone." She said rather forcefully.

Michaela was a stubborn woman and wouldn't stop there. As they were walking to the telegraph office, she stopped and Adrianna stopped too and looked at her angry.

"Why did you flinch when Brian hugged you? Why do you keep to yourself?" she asked, hoping for a response. Adrianna instead stared at her, not saying a thing. Soon enough she looked away and stared back at her again, fighting tears.

"You don't know at all what it's like to be me! I have to go through being treated like nothing every single day! You wonder why I like to be alone. I know I will not be treated badly then!" she then continued to walk and Michaela followed her, knowing that she would say no more.

Even with the heartfelt declaration that she gave to her, Michaela felt that there was more that Adrianna was not telling her.

They soon came to the office and Horace looked at Adrianna, wondering if there was going to be another fight. When she didn't approach, he held out a letter that was addressed to her. It was from her sister and she took it. When Michaela told him why they were there, he didn't respond. He explained that he was hard of hearing. Michaela wanted to find out why and he seemed hesitant, looking at Adrianna like this was some act of revenge from her. Michaela walked to him and asked what ear it was. Soon enough she had out some tweezers and the wax was gone. To barter, she sent out the telegraph and they left.

As they were going back to the store, a punta from the saloon came and whispered for both of the women. She needed their help, Adrianna instinctively held on to her weapon. They both walked into the saloon and knew that they were in a place that didn't want them there. All of the men looked at the women like they were undressing them with their eyes. Adrianna gave one man an angry stare and he just smiled. The bartender did not look like he wanted them there either.

"I gonna have to ask you to leave miss. And you Mexican, I think I have some room for you in room two." Adrianna looked at him, and took out her weapon briefly before putting it back, she didn't say anything.

"Then I am going to have to refuse." Michaela answered him. He looked angry at her statement. He then whistled and said, "Ladies aren't allowed."

"I'm not a lady, I'm a doctor." Michaela bravely said and Adrianna gave him an evil smile as she followed Michaela and the punta into a room.

She and Michaela sat down while Adrianna stood.

"What's your name?" asked Michaela.

"Myra." She answered.

"I'm Doctor Quinn and that there is doctor Martiz." Michaela said, pointing at Adrianna.

Myra looked at Adrianna. "I know a little Spanish and have met a few Mexicans. It is a beautiful country."

Adrianna gave a laugh that sounded more like a bark. "I'm not from Mexíco. I was born in Sineu; it's a city on an island called Majorca. Majorca is an island close to Spain. I have never been to Mexico and do not plan to." Myra looked a little upset, "I'm sorry, I thought you were."

Adrianna sat on the bed next to her and put one arm around her shoulder. "It's ok. We're all citizens of this great, big earth!" she said it in a very sarcastic tone. She then stood up again and stood against the wall, crossing her arms and saying nothing.

"I like what you said out there about not being a lady." She was now talking to Michaela.

"I don't approve of male hypocrisy." Michaela replied.

"No, me neither."

"Tell me what's wrong with you?"

"Ooh…well…I've got a…you know a…know a…." she trailed off.

"…female problem?" Michaela asked.

Both women smiled and even Adrianna found a way to crack up a smile.

"Have you ever been examined before?" Michaela asked.

She shook her head. Michaela got up and said that there was nothing to be afraid of. Adrianna went over and helped get the pitcher of water ready for the examination.

Adrianna was starting to feel better. The positive human interaction seemed to help her, because she was starting to laugh and smile again. She was even telling a funny story about her sister to help calm Myra.

When her examination was finished Michaela gave her some instructions to help her problem. Myra gave her some beads and a lot of thanking occurred.

"So we have to tell Hank the bartender that she can't work for a month?" Adrianna asked Michaela.

"I'm afraid so." She answered.

When they got out there, Adrianna took out her weapons and put her finger in the direction of the long sword. She took out the other one also and put it in the direction of a long metal rod.

"Hank, I'm giving Myra orders to remain chaste for a month." Michaela walked up to the bar as she said this.

"Chaste?" he said and Adrianna walked so that she was halfway from the wall to the bar.

"That means that she doesn't perform any sexual activity…_idiota_." Adrianna replied malevolently.

He laughed, "She works for me." Then a man sitting down said, "Unless you'd like to take her place lady?" Everyone laughed.

"I'm afraid that is not my line of work gentlemen. As I said before, I'm a doctor and I'll like to hear from any of you foolish enough to spend time with Myra before that month is up."

Hank asked her to come closer where he said to get out. Michaela walked closer to Adrianna who looked very amused. One man walked up to Adrianna and looked at her body with hunger in his eyes. "I want to teach the Mexican some lessons." He said and instead of looking scared she smiled.

"No, I'm the one who wants to teach you some lessons…_señor_!" Then she pushed the sword and it went against his neck drawing up blood.

"Kinda feisty huh, Carl?" One man said, thinking it was funny.

"Michaela."

"Yes?' asked Michaela who looked a little scared at the maniacal look in her friend's eyes.

"I want you to either get down or get out of here. I am going to contaminate my swords with white man's blood."

Michaela looked at her a little frightened. She got down as some men on her left closed on Adrianna.

"Well señor's, let's do this!"

As Michaela got down on the floor, Adrianna threw out the metal rod and it hit four or five men who were running toward her. Adrianna jumped onto a chair that was behind her, cutting Carl from his neck to his shoulder. She moved the knobs so that they again became an innocent looking rectangular object. She jumped high from the chair and landing on the same chair, her hands holding her body there, so that she looked to be lying down on her stomach with her hands on the seat, slowly heightening her. It took a month to practice that move, she started to think. The men that she had hit with the metal rod had been thrown to the bar all the way to the left. One had hit the bar and was almost thrown back, his body getting whip lashed. One man had fallen over him and into the floor before the back of the bar. The other two men had fallen above them and fell into glass and wood. They had pieces of glass in their body, one of the two had it in a place he wished he hadn't.

Meanwhile, Adrianna was on the chair and in a split second, being that her hands were dangerously on the edge of the chair, fell off from the side, her hands balancing her body off the dirty floor. She fell to the left where there were no longer any men. She abruptly got up and looked around for Michaela. In all of the crashing, she had left the bar and she saw that Sully was now here and so had another man. They were in a man to man fight. Adrianna walked backwards, listening for anyone who would want to take her from the back. She stopped at the wall and the two remaining men that were not injured walked to her, thinking that she was cornered. She actually was anticipating this move and took out her two weapons. When they were less than a foot away and laughing, Adrianna feigned a look a defeat. They laughed.

"You are ours Mexican. I will enjoy your screams as I enter you!" As one of the men said it, Adrianna held out her weapons.

"Fine, take my weapons, just don't hurt me." She said shakily. She threw them the weapons and they again smiled. When the weapons finally went into the hands of each of the men, they were electrocuted with at least 10,000 volts of electricity. Both men were dead in about ten seconds. When they were finally dead, Adrianna took the weapons and looked at Hank, who looked scared for the first time.

"Everyone knows that once you own a weapon, no one else can touch it! At least I thought everyone did!" She then took out one of the weapons and it became a shorter sword and she pierced it into the back of the man Sully was fighting. She put it in the area where she knew the heart was. He died instantly. She took out the extremely bloody sword and put it back. She put both weapons in the protective pockets and Sully pushed the corpse off of him. He looked very surprised and looked at Adrianna's outfit. The black absorbed the blood and made it look like she got a little water on her.

"I now know why you wear black." He didn't look happy at what she did and at that moment as she gave one last look at all of the dead bodies, she felt an incredible amount of guilt wash over her. She walked with Sully to the wagon where she got on it, without saying a word. Sully briefly held Michaela's hand as she started the horses of the wagon and they left town.


	8. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part Six

Disclaimer: So again we have a story here that is based on the characters and everything else that relates with _Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman_. Those all belong to CBS Incorporated. Adrianna, Santis and fermented worm juice belongs to me. Enjoy!

The event of course spread around town and caused the opposite reaction that Adrianna thought would occur. She thought that everyone would get angry and call the marshal on her. There were of course a few that wanted to do that, but were persuaded not to. The reality was that no one believed Adrianna. Freedom fighters were very peaceful and never fought. The people of the town did not realize that libertdad luchares meant freedom fighters. They did not ever see weapons and laughed at the idea. Freedom fighters were treated better than Native Americans because some had white skin and were out of the way for the most point. There was also no bad stereotype to them, unlike those of the real Americans who have been treated badly since Columbus landed in the Caribbean. Hank was a little unnerved at what happened and really did not believe what he saw. Even Santis was not considered evil. Why was Santis not considered evil? The townspeople did not really take freedom fighters seriously. With their strange attire and customs and no one could forget the eating of worms, they were laughed at. They were ridiculed and laughed at. Everyone made fun of them and thought they were gullible and weak. That was what freedom fighters wanted to believe. They were people of peace who practiced the art of combat for protection and because it was an art. (Of course, the whites did not know that they practiced combat at all.)

Adrianna did not care if no one believed her. Just because she wasn't going to be prosecuted by the law didn't mean she wasn't going to be prosecuted by her mind. She went over the moments over and over in her head and how one woman had killed seven men in the space of two minutes. Adrianna had never felt guilt about killing United States soldiers because she kept thinking that they were the people who killed her family. Every time she stabbed a man or cut one in half or just plain shot one in their cold heart, she thought about the deaths. Her mother had never done anything to die the way she did, she was a good woman who choose love over royalty. She loved Alejandro and left her royal family for him.

These people were going to rape and beat her, she knew it, but she still upset with what she did. They were civilians and deserved to die. They were humans who were once innocent and who were killed by Adrianna. She told herself she would never give into the evil that she once was. She had her stupid ring and dozens of scars all over her body to prove that she was an assassin, including the 085 on her cheek. In the year of her 16th birthday, she changed herself, turning instead to a doctor saving lives. She wanted to save them, not end them. She felt like nothing at the moment, like she was a demon, a monster.

She went to sleep that night very uneasy. Adrianna had a dream that night that unnerved her. In it Isabella was angry with her for making her clean the shaft they lived in and ran away. Adrianna was very afraid since she was 2 years old and looked everywhere she could think of. She finally found her and she was seriously injured but just as she was about to help her, she woke up.

"Izzy! Izzy!" she yelled.

"What are you yellin' at?" asked Matthew who was awoken by her screams.

Adrianna got dressed and walked to Matthew, who had gotten down from his sleeping quarters, dressed himself. Adrianna tried to walk past him, but he stopped her.

"It's nothing that you give a damn about Cooper. Leave me alone and I'll do the same."

Adrianna was so unnerved about the situation that she went into the house, looking to make sure everyone was safe. When she came into Brian and Colleen's place of slumber, she found Colleen there but no Brian.

Adrianna's face went so white that she could have been mistaken for a white woman.

"Colleen." She asked her voice a little shaky.

"She opened her eyes, groggy, "Wassthat?"

"It's me Adrianna. I want to know where Brian is."

She soon got up and saw that he was missing too. She looked a little frightened.

"I don't know."

Adrianna went to Michaela's room and woke her up.

"What is wrong Ann?" she asked, wondering why she was waking her up and why she was actually there.

"I think Brian has run away." Adrianna said it with a little fear in her face.

Michaela got out of bed and quickly put on a dress. By the time they got out of the house, Matthew had the wagon ready. Michaela stopped him, putting her arm on the reigns.

"I and Adrianna are going to find him. This is my fault." Michaela said and that seemed to stop him because he let go of the reigns. Michaela went into the barn and got her horse while Adrianna whistled for her horse "Lobster" which trotted to her.

"I'm going to the libertdad luchares tribe to see if they either saw Brian or can help." Michaela nodded her head at Adrianna's response and got on her horse. Adrianna did the same and trotted off as Michaela promised Matthew that she would try to find Brian alone.

Adrianna rode two miles to the west, to the tribe of freedom fighters that were habituating the area. Adrianna did not know if they would help. Freedom fighters were good people, but were not trusting of her. Just because she was a princess and her cousin technically ruled over them, she was not treated with respect. She was an illegitimate child of the now-dead princess who thought that the love of a sádico was more important than her country. She did not care; she really liked Brian and knew that she could be redeemed a little with helping the little chico.

When she was about half a mile from the settlement, she heard distant sounds of music. She knew that this must have been the yearly danza de música. It was an ancient celebration of music that involved partying until everyone was too drunk on worm guts juice to think straight. The guards at the door saluted her and opened it immediately. Usually she had to wait till the chief came and that usually took about ten minutes. She was so surprised that she hesitated before she went into the settlement. She soon was welcomed by the intoxicating smell of sautéed worms. She got off her horse; she saw the baile de gusanos. It was a party where everyone of age would dance around without any holding back. They dance amid worms, slipping on them, throwing them around and just having uncomplicated fun.

Adrianna saw Santis who's Mohawk was gone and had the most beautiful, long raven hair that she had ever seen. It complimented her bright green eyes that sparkled in all of her happiness. She was carrying a shot glass that looked to be holding fermented worm juice. She saw Adrianna and actually gave her a smile. Adrianna got off her horse and walked to her and saw that she was talking to a few teenage girls.

"Well you are here Martiz! I didn't think you would be here!" she sounded a little too drunk.

"I didn't come to party. I am hoping for some help."

She frowned and her hair started to shorten a little. She stood up and started to walk toward a bar, Adrianna followed her.

"Dos disparos de gusanos fermentados." She said and the male bartender winked at her and Adrianna while he made the drinks.

"What the hell did I do?" asked Adrianna as she took the drink and took it down in one gulp.

"You killed seven people in two minutes, hermana!" she said as she took down her drink and slapped her on the back.

Adrianna widened her eyes and laughed.

"Are you telling me that it takes the killing of seven men to gain acceptance here?" Adrianna asked incredulously.

"Sí, the people you killed were just the same to them. They treated our people with disrespect and deserved what they got in everyone's opinion here. Some are actually wondering if there is a religious or spiritual reason to you being here." She said and Adrianna realized that her hair had grown a little shorter.

"What is wrong with your hair?" Adrianna asked, confused about how her hair moved back and forth.

"Santis are evil as you know and the Mohawk signifies the evilness. When I am angry and upset, my hair goes to the form of a Mohawk. When I am very happy I get my normal hair back."

Adrianna smiled at that and asked for two shots of fermented worm juice.

"I need some help."

Santis looked at her, trying to analyze her.

"I would not think that someone with your powers would need anyone's help. Plus you're an assassin." She said cynically and her hair went back to the Mohawk.

"There are some things that I cannot do. I have killed deserving men and can jump high and have super strength that is unparallel to everyone else. Even with that, I cannot find a missing boy by myself."

Santis raised her eyebrow and frowned. "So you're not immortal?"

"No, I am human with human emotions." Santis smiled at Adrianna's response and drank up the shot.

She then stood up and walked toward the biggest of the houses, the one that housed the chief.

She was wearing a slim black dress, covered with mud that was obviously falling off. All around her was a very muddy ground. She looked up when she saw the assassin and gave her a warm smile.

"You are confused chica? Have you come for the celebration?"

"No, I need your help. I know that it is wrong to ask of this in a time of celebration, but Brian Cooper is missing and I would ask if a few of your "soldiers" would help me."

The chief smiled, but didn't say anything. Instead she wiped some dried mud off her body and started to eat her supper. She was smiling the whole time and kept staring at Adrianna. She soon finished and put down her silverware. An attendant took her plate and she sat there. By now all of the mud on her body was dried off and her skin looked grey because of the mud.

"You need the help of my people huh?"

"Sí."

"I feel that you are a good and honest person. You have been through a lot in your life and want to make amends with the world. You have recently done something that has saddened you."

"Sí."

"I will allow it. Two of our soldiers are not participating in the events and will accompany you as will Aldamora."

Santis smiled and two soldiers were behind her, one male and the other female. The female was the same one that had been part of the band of freedom fighters that had stopped Adrianna, Michaela, Charlotte and the children those months ago. The male was of medium height with short spiky hair and fair skin. He was wearing a tight black shirt and velvet pants. He smiled at Adrianna and Santis.

"I think that a good night's sleep is the best thing to do." Said Santis who kept staring at the bartender.

"You can sleep at our place." Said the female soldier.

Everyone except Santis walked to one of the large black huts. Santis walked to the bartender and Adrianna soon saw both of them leave for another hut, the bartender touching her in the most inappropriate of places. Santis', hair became very long at that moment.

When they went into the hut, Adrianna had an amused look on her face.

"Aldamora and Fredrico have been together for a few months. They are planning on getting married." The female freedom fighter said as they all sat on a comfortable couch that seemed to be made of Buffalo leather.

Adrianna sat down and the two soldiers sat on either side of her.

"My name's María and his name is Jóse. We are brothers and sisters who live together." Said María who smoothed out the back of her seat.

"You did all of that, right?" asked Jóse.

"Yes, I killed them all. It was wrong--"

"No, it was good. We are so submissive. The reína is too submissive. Her sisters and mother and all of her ancestors are like that. They all want peace and to be left alone. The stupid white people do not know that we are experts in the skill of combat. That is how she wants it. No conflict." Jóse interrupted.

"You disagree? She seems wise, and I do agree with her." Adrianna said.

"Being beat up without fighting back, spit at, called weak and stupid? I do not agree with her. She is disrespecting our people. What we stand for!" replied María angrily.

"I am a former assassin, someone who killed for four years. Giving into violence will not help the situation. Especially with white people, they do not understand what fighting really is. They would kill your family if you retaliate. They will stereotype you and you will be treated way worse than now. At least now you know that you can walk the streets without being killed." Adrianna said, determined to make them understand.

"We must agree to disagree Dr. Martiz. Tell us about the boy." Said Jóse, who did not want to disagree anymore.

"He is about six, blond hair, white, wants to live with the Cheyenne." Stated Adrianna who smirked at the last statement.

"He must be a good kid. The Natives of this area are good people. They will protect him and take care of him if he wanders there." María answered, too afraid to continue the disagreement.

"We will look for him with everything we got. That includes Aldamora." María said.

"What is her story? She is not someone who I would think would be moved with my actions." Adrianna said.

"All I know is that she came here a few years ago, wet, ripped clothes, bruises all over her body. From what I know, she was beat by her father. I don't know why, but he did and somehow she landed here, vulnerable but never showing it. She is like you in that way." Jóse said and looked at Adrianna intensely.

"You are both very beautiful women who have been _broken_." María said slowly, carefully choosing her words.

Adrianna was stunned by her choice of words and somehow knew that it was right. That day broke her and she would never be the same, she would never ever have a real relationship after that.

"I am going to bed." Adrianna said in a shaky voice and they both led her into a guest room.

The three woke up early, wanting the start up the search as soon as possible. Adrianna and María had to practically take Santis out of bed and dress her. She kissed her boyfriend goodbye and soon all four were on horseback, looking for Brian.

All of them yelled for the boy, hoping that he would answer. He didn't. They must have been looking for hours when they found Michaela and Sully and Brian. According to them, he had fallen and broke his leg. It had just gotten put back in place when they came.

"You're a brave boy." Adrianna heard Michaela say.

"That's what I said in bed last night!" said Santis; she gave a high pitched laugh that sounded more like a dog howling.

"What is wrong with you? You can't say that in front of a boy!" said Jóse who stood next to Adrianna, stunned at what she had just said.

"So I got out of bed with my lover for him to be found!" Santis said in an unusually high and annoyed voice.

"You are getting on my nerves Aldamora." Said María, who was walking toward Brian, kneeling to touch his forehead.

"Brian! Are you ok?" Adrianna asked. He nodded and she kissed him on his cheek. He almost looked like he blushed.

Some Native Americans came and nodded at the brother and sister while Santis just wasn't finished with her comedy tour.

"So Indians! Have I done any of you yet? You look familiar. I mean the hair is there for a reason!"

Santis was getting on everyone's nerves and María was the only one who seemed to have guts to slap her on the back of the head. Brian laughed, even though he probably did not understand what she just said.

One got off his horse and asked to help, but Michaela said that everything was fine.

"Oh crap! We have some U.S. murders, oh I mean soldiers here. Want to take care of it Dr. Martiz?" asked Santis, who looked strangely like she was actually enjoying the situation.

Adrianna looked and saw at the top of the hill U.S. soldiers, all looking like they wanted to fight. Adrianna instinctively got out her weapon, but decided against it. Jóse and María looked like they wanted to fight, but with a stare from Adrianna, went to the side. Santis was laughing and was forcefully pushed to the side by Adrianna who was half mad, half amused at the situation.

As they all watched helplessly as Chivington and his troops went after the Native Americans, Adrianna heard someone breathe very loudly.

"You used to do it! Do it now! You are the only one who is allowed to fight them!" Adrianna turned and saw María stare at her angrily.

Someone went out to stop the soldiers and it wasn't Adrianna. Michaela went out and put herself before the men. Chivington looked angry and listened to her plight. He must have believed her because he left and there was no gunfight. Adrianna breathed a sigh of relief as did everyone else.

As Chivington rode away, Adrianna heard Santis say, "You, me, your bed, tonight, and I won't be there!"

That was the exact moment that Matthew came to find Brian. He thanked both Michaela and Adrianna but Adrianna did not want to take the credit for anything since she didn't do a thing.

Santis of course had to say something, still drunk on the fermented worms.

"Ok, let's go home people! I have a very good looking fiancée that is missing me if you know what I mean." Everyone shook their heads and so they went home.

Fall approached soon enough and things were getting better, at least a little. The people accepted Adrianna as one of them and Santis was actually not violent to her and asked her to be her matron of honor. The wedding was beautiful and she got her share of good food and entertainment. Adrianna was a little unsure about her husband, but she soon found out that this man was an inventor who had invented a lot of interesting things. He also had a keen intelligence and Adrianna and he had a lot of good arguments about a variety of issues.

Her relationship with Santis was great too. They accepted each other, even when she wasn't drunk. They were very similar and Adrianna found that they had some good adventures together and Santis told her a lot about the land and the people.

Brian's leg healed, and all of the kids were getting warmer with Adrianna. The patients were coming; the only problem was that they were mostly animals like pigs. Adrianna and the reverend were even finding ways to get along, besides the fact that Adrianna had called him a demon.

Her sister Isabella was upset that she was not going to come, but understood anyway. She sent her the progress report that was all good marks. She then told her that she was going to a f.f. college in the fall for physics. Adrianna was glad about that. She knew that that was her area of expertise and she would do well in it. She was also glad to know she did not get expelled and did not mess around with acid, burning holes in wall so that she could beat the crowd to class.

One day Adrianna and Santis and her husband rode with Michaela and the kids. It seemed to be a good fall day, but Adrianna did not realize how wrong she was.

They came in and everything seemed normal. Colleen wanted some beautiful maroon fabric for the Christmas dance and Brian kept looking at the carved wood wolf. Santis husband, Fredrico kneeled down and looked at it, appraising it.

"Great craftsmanship, wonderful detail, just like my wife." Everyone except Loren laughed and he walked to Santis.

"My wife, the greatest gift I have ever been blessed with." As he said that, Adrianna knelt down to where Brian was and they both said, "EWWW!".

The reverend explained how Sully carves things out of wood and Adrianna looked impressed. _A miner and a carver?_ She thought.

There was soon a tense moment as they realized a little about Loren and Maude and Sully. Loren and Maude had a daughter. Why would something like that belong to her? Was she involved with Sully? Where was she now? Adrianna frowned when Maude used past tense to describe her.

There was some awkward silence and soon enough Michaela broke it with deciding that she would buy it.

That was when Adrianna heard Marge make some terrible sounds. She soon fell to the ground and everyone came over to her.

Adrianna held them back and Michaela started to unbutton her dress, trying to get to her heart. She asked where the powder was and she took deep breaths and said gone. Adrianna widened her eyes, and she heightened Maude's head.

"You go see if the digitalis is there, I will monitor her. GO!" Adrianna said, yelling the last word. Michaela ran and came back a few minutes later telling her that it had not come in.

"She is getting weaker! What do we do?" Michaela did not want to say what they had to do. Santis was still there, her Mohawk looking the biggest that she had even seen.

"You have to let her die." She said it silently and it was like she screamed it. Everyone didn't say a word and Adrianna felt tears fall from her face for the kind woman who didn't deserve to die.

She didn't deserve to die.


	9. Welcome to Colorado Springs: Part Seven

Disclaimer: CBS Incorporated owns DQMW. I own Adrianna and all of her culture. NOW READ AND REVIEW!

The death of Maude saddened Michaela more than Adrianna could imagine. It was not like other deaths, where it was that a medicine wasn't working or they came there too late. It was that a medicine wasn't available. It was something very simple and elemental and could have been prevented.

Adrianna was eating dinner one night as she saw Michaela ponder what happened. Adrianna always had one thing in life that she did, something that she had followed, it was to stay out of everyone's business if she could. There were times that she broke this rule, like when she asked about Santis. She tried to follow the beliefs of the reína and become part of the background.

She couldn't do that today; she had to break the rule.

"It's not your fault." Adrianna said it out of the air and so unexpectedly that everyone froze, this was so unlike Adrianna.

"Excuse me?" Michaela said.

"Don't blame yourself; blaming will not solve a thing. You need to move on, remember the nice and sweet woman that was Maude and breathe." Adrianna said like it was normal.

"Oh. Thanks Ann, I will take your advice." Michaela answered and knew that it was time to take advantage of the situation."

"When we were waiting for the soldiers to attack when we found Brian, what did the female libertdad luchares mean when she said you did it before and when they explained that they couldn't do anything?" Michaela asked inquisitively.

Everyone seemed to want to know the answer, because they all stopped eating and looked directly at Adrianna, waiting for a response. She looked at them all, a little angry at the fact that she was asking something personal. This was why she kept out of people's business; they always wanted to know her business.

"It's something that is not important at the moment. You do not need to know about it. Please leave me alone. They all want peace." Adrianna then sat up and cleaned her plate. Everyone was in silence as she left the house and went into the barn.

"I guess she doesn't want to talk about it." Said Brian and everyone started to clean the table.

Adrianna walked to the barn, cold, but angry. What would an innocent little boy think about the fact that she killed U.S. soldiers and killed them? What would he think about the fact that she hunted them like they were animals? She loved Brian; he was a kind and considerate little boy that loved all creatures. She didn't want to even think about what everyone else would think about it. They would be ashamed. She would never ever tell them.

She took off her clothes and put on her pajamas. She lay down and tried to sleep. The blanket door that she had made was very well structured so that no one could come into her place. With correspondence from her sister, she found a way to muffle sound with placing of the blanket in angles. Isabella drew intricate diagrams of how the blanket should be placed with the angles and even where to cut the door. It muffled the sound really good and it sounded like a strange language when someone talked in the "room". It also meant that no one in the room could hear anything either.

Adrianna lay there wondering how she was going to avoid questions like today. They weren't going to stop and were probably going to persist worse than today.

She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep, worried about so many things.

Her assassin instincts would never disappear, no matter how much she tried to suppress them. She heard pounding and immediately woke up. She was fast asleep, far from the world that she was in now, but her training stepped into her subconscious and she awoke. She was wearing a silky pair of dark pants and black cotton piece of cloth that was tied in the back and covered her upper chest.

She left her room and slowly explored the barn, it wasn't until she went inside the house that she saw what had awoken her up. In there were a few Indians, Sully and one injured chief BlackKettle. She walked in ignoring that fact that she was not wearing much.

"What happened?" Adrianna asked.

"BlacKettle's been shot." Michaela said. Adrianna's eyes widened and she went to the side of the table.

"The bullet is in his neck. We must perform a tracheotomy." Adrianna said, ignoring all of the frequent glances she was getting toward her body.

Michaela held out a knife and the Native Americans thought that she was going to cut him to hurt him. Sully had to explain that it was for medical reasons. They did not look happy that it was happening but agreed. Michaela grabbed a feather off of one of Sully's necklaces, blew onto it and cut into his neck. Michaela advised Adrianna to take out the bullet and she shook her head. Adrianna then looked for some ether and was about to put it on and was stopped. She knew the basics of their language and tried to explain that it would stop the pain. She looked at him shake his head and explain that he was not afraid of pain. She smirked and took out the bullet with success.

After he was cleaned up, there was the question about what was to happen. Chivington would look for the body as a prize, and so he had to be hidden.

As Sully was explaining that, Adrianna came by, very determined to help.

"We must hide the chief. He can stay in my "room" for as long as he can." As Adrianna finished her sentence, Sully nodded his head.

"They will come here and we need to be ready. I will reluctantly play a poor Mexican servant who sleeps in the stall." Michaela smirked at that. She knew how angry she got when someone called her that.

"Are you sure about that?" Michaela said, jokingly.

"Sí, royals get special training in not being royal, as they call it. I learned how to become a poor Mexican pretty good. It is very believable. It is best if I do this. It will add to the reality of the situation."

Adrianna frowned and went to where wolf was and went to pet him. She smiled at Brian and he smiled back.

"I don't speak wolf, but I can tell that he is very happy." Adrianna said, smiling at the wolf. He went to her and licked her face. He then started to lick her shoulders where her tattoos were and she realized that they weren't covered. She stood up abruptly and fell back. She stood up determined to leave.

"What do those tattoos mean?" asked Michaela.

Adrianna looked at Michaela a little annoyed.

"Why do you keep asking me questions about my life?" she asked.

"I have known you for a couple years and you are still a mystery to you. From the cryptic things that people say to you and the tattoos and even that place below your stomach that you always have gauze over. What are you hiding?" Michaela looked very exasperated.

Adrianna's eyes widened in anger, she looked like she was about to blow up.

"My past is not perfect. My parents died when I was eight, I had to take my four month-old sister to a stupid orphanage where we were treated badly. I don't like to talk about it, ok!" she was almost yelling.

She then pointed to her tattoos. "These signify who I am. The ones on my left explain that I am a half-blood freedom fighter; these here on my right are the crests of my family. Carlucci is on the top and Martiz is below that." She then went through her pocket and took out a package that was the same size of the gauze. It was black and white and had writings in Spanish on it. She then ripped off the gauze and everyone gasped. There was the strangest sight. It could only be described as human gills. Six rows of skin with space between. It was the width of about an inch and two inches high. Michaela kept staring at it and Adrianna angrily opened the package, which contained six small glossy straps that fit onto the flaps of her gills. She then put the gauze over it. She had angry tears falling down her face, her breathing was labored.

"Do you see why I haven't told you? I am a freedom fighter, I am not normal in your standards. I will never be treated right. Do you understand?" She angrily walked out and went to the barn.

Later the chief came and he laid down there with the other Natives. Adrianna found a traditional dress that looked a little ragged, like it had been worn for a while. Adrianna was glad to say that the whole event went as planned. Michaela played a southern bell with great authenticity. Adrianna played a servant who didn't know that much English and had a hard time finding words. When she was this girl, she was reminded of her mother and so she pretended she was her mother. It was the closest that she had been to her in years. They searched the house and soon the barn. Adrianna had to make sure that they didn't see the blood that had leaked. That was the most dramatic part where she found a way to lay on the bed, making sure they could not see the blood. It worked and they left, not knowing that the chief had been there.

The chief soon came back and thanked both women for helping them. They both got names, Michaela was medicine woman and Adrianna was secret heart. Adrianna smiled at the name, knowing that she was very secretive, and didn't like to talk about herself. She smiled at him, liking her name.

After they left, Adrianna started to walk toward the barn.

"Ann…" she yelled at her. Adrianna turned around and stared at her, hurt in her eyes.

"What the hell do you want?" she asked angrily. "Want to know when I had my first monthly…or when I shared my first kiss? What do you want to know!" she said it angrily, hurt heard in her voice.

Michaela had a face full of regret. "I'm sorry. I really am." She said it, feeling very sorry. Adrianna looked a little warmer; she even cracked a tiny smile.

"Just don't do it again." She silently said and whistled for her horse and rode off with her.

Adrianna was so upset with Michaela that she stayed farther from Michaela. She spent time alone, thinking. She was always going to be different from the whites from all Sadícos. She was different and there was no way to change that. When it started to snow, she was forced to stay at home, in her stall. She didn't talk to Michaela, averting her gaze completely.

On Christmas Eve, there was to be a dance. Adrianna was not going to go, saying that she had nothing "normal" to wear. After all of the kids kept asking her, she decided that it was best to go, since she could not eat in peace. Brian wanted her to wear the black gauze dress that she wore when they first moved in here. She decided to do it and everyone was happy.

Maybe it was that she kept asking that the dance never happen, maybe it was a crazy occurrence. Any way it is thought of, they were snowed in. Adrianna cracked up a smile and was hit repeatedly by Colleen, who was looking forward to it, more than everyone else. She had made a beautiful maroon dress from the fabric brought that sad day in the mercantile when Maude died.

Adrianna had calmed down in the past two days due to the constant cheering up by the kids. She even forgave Michaela. So as they sat there, feeling sad, Adrianna sat there and brought out some worms, where she started to eat them.

"EWWW! That's disgusting Anna!" Brian and Colleen said, having said it in unison.

"Worms are part of the freedom fighter diet. Everything revolves around it. It is in food and drink." Adrianna said amused.

"Drink?" Matthew asked, looking horrified.

"Worm juice is a popular drink that involves squeezing a worm and taking the juices that come out. Some of it is digestive in nature." Adrianna said while everyone looked very sick.

"Then there is fermented worm juice, an alcoholic juice that can make you very drunk." Adrianna said is normally like fermented worm juice was a normal occurrence.

"Can you really get drunk from it?" asked Michaela.

"Sí. Do you remember Santis on the day we rescued Brian?" Everyone except Colleen laughed.

"Are you a Christian?" asked Colleen, making a very valid point.

"Sí. I am, as I was raised one. I am very religious." Adrianna replied seriously.

"But you don't go to church." Brian said.

"I know. I am a different type of Christian, I guess. We all believe in the same thing, but have different ways of showing that. I am a Catholic. I go to a Catholic church in a nearby town."

Everyone looked surprised at her declaration.

"Are freedom fighters Christian?" asked Matthew.

"They are whatever religion is prominent in their area. Freedom fighters in Saudi Arabia are Muslim, for example. They grow up like you, except that they are freedom fighters. The freedom fighters here are Christian Protestants. That is one reason that they didn't accept me at first."

Brain smiled and hugged Adrianna, obviously accepting her.

"Do you know any Christmas songs?" Michaela asked Adrianna.

"Do I know them? Yes! I even know them in Spanish!" she said and Brian and Colleen looked very happy at that.

"Can you sing one?" asked Brian.

"Sí, por supuesto!" Everyone seemed excited at that.

"Pick a song!"

"Silent Night!" Brian yelled.

"Ok! Here is goes:

_Noche de luz, noche de paz; Reina ya gran solaz,  
Do el niño dormido está, mensajero del Dios de verdad.  
Duerme, niño, en paz, duerme, niño en paz. _

_Noche de luz, noche de paz; al pastor más trara's,  
Luz celeste en gran plenitud, sontos coros que cantan salud:  
Hoy nació el Señor, hoy nació el Señor. _

_Noche de luz, noche de paz; Ved la luz de su faz,  
Es el alba de la redención, Dios en él, nos dará' Salvación.  
Oh, bendito Jesus! Oh, bendito Jesus!_"

After Adrianna finished singing the song, they all decided to eat supper. Michaela started to pray and asked Adrianna to finish the prayer. Adrianna said the prayer that her mother always said at Christmas dinner: _God of love, Father of all, the darkness that covered the earth has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh. Make us a people of this light. Make us faithful to your Word, that we may bring your life to the waiting world. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen_

Adrianna had a tear in her eye and she really felt that there was no difference at that moment. They were all Christians after all.

Brian then asked something that moved Adrianna.

"Do you think ma would mind if I called you ma too?" he asked.

Michaela looked at both Colleen and then Matthew who both nodded slightly. She agreed and Brian gave her a big smile.

He then looked at Adrianna who gave him a warm smile.

"I would like you to be my ma too, if that's ok." Adrianna smiled deeply.

"How about Amiga? You already have two moms; I would not feel it is right." Brian smiled and agreed.

Colleen then asked about Isabella.

"What's your sister like?"

Adrianna got caught off guard and choked on the worm she was eating.

"Mi hermana? Well….she is interesting?"

"What do you mean?" asked Brian.

"She is not normal. She is a smart and brilliant girl…woman. She is your age Matthew. She also jokes around, a little too much. A lot of times I find myself very annoyed with her…. a lot."

Colleen laughed. "What does she do?"

"Right now she is in a freedom fighter college studying physics. She likes to do stupid things. One time, she mixed together a special type of acid so that she could break walls and beat everyone to class by running through the classes!" Everyone laughed at that.

"She sounds funny." Said Matthew. "Will we ever meet her?"

"I don't know. Maybe someday." Adrianna answered.

Then the door knocked at Adrianna grabbed her weapon.

"Open the door and I will stay behind you." Adrianna seriously said and Michaela obliged.

Adrianna put her weapon back when they realized that it was Sully and wolf. He seemed to be carrying something, but Adrianna could not tell what it was.

When he went to the fire, Adrianna heard whimpering. He tuned around and there was a little pup.

"Merry Christmas, Brian."

"Thanks Sully."

"Colleen." She gave her a beautiful wooden comb.

"Thank you Mr. Sully." She said happily.

"Matthew." He gave him a special tool, even though Adrianna did not know what it was.

"Thank you." He replied.

Then he took out something wooden. He smoothed it off and gave it to Michaela. Adrianna walked over and saw that it was a sign that read: M. Quinn M.D.: Medicine Woman.

"Now that's a shingle." He replied.

"It certainly is." And she gave a tiny laugh.

Sully then looked at Adrianna and she looked back at him.

"You didn't think I would forget you?" he asked.

"I don't know. Did you?"

He took off one of his necklaces, which was holding an old and worn ring. It was gold and had a chipped peridot gem on it. Adrianna thought that was an interesting gem and was strangely reminded that that was the color of the Carlucci royal family. He broke the string it was on and gave it to her.

"I found this a couple years ago, a U.S. soldier had dropped it and didn't know what to do with it. I want you to have it."

Adrianna blushed, looking at the ring. "I cannot accept this! I would not feel right. I do not wear rings and I do not think I would feel right having something this valuable.

Sully looked at her with a smile.

"Your mother's name is Carlotta, right?" he asked.

"Dios mio! How do you know that! I never told you!" she asked surprised.

"Read the inscription in the ring."

Adrianna's hands started to shake. She had a feeling that she knew what it was, but didn't want to believe it, it was too much to be true.

She looked in the ring and read the inscription out loud.

"A mi amor, mi princesa Carlotta.-Alejandro" Adrianna could feel the tears fall. She then fell to the ground, clutching the ring. She started to cry, cry harder than she had in years. She tried to compose herself and after a few minutes, she found the ability to form words together.

"This was my parent's wedding ring! I got lost when they died, someone had stolen it. I have looked for years, and could not find it."

Adrianna looked very vulnerable, like she was a little child that had to be separated from her parents, like she had all of those years ago.

"I don't have the palabras to express my gratitude. I feel closer to her than I have since that day I lost her. Gracias."

He shook his head and said, "Your welcome."

Then he looked at everyone and said, "Merry Christmas!"

"Well, good night, Merry Christmas." Being Sully, he started to leave but Michaela stopped him asking him to stay.

"I'd like that." He replied.

As everyone ate, Adrianna smiled. She had never felt like she was part of a family in a long time. She was always a loner and an outsider, someone who was always looking into the window, now she was looking out of the window. As she looked out she felt a tear fall. She was different, but it didn't matter to them. She was loved and she couldn't be happier.

She finally felt like she belonged somewhere.

A/N: I want to thank two sites for the information in this part of the chapter….

The first is: http/ I used this site for the Spanish version of silent night. It was very useful and I would advise that you go there for other Christmas songs in Spanish.

The second is: http/ I used this to find a Catholic prayer and is a very useful sight for information on Catholics.

I want to tell you that I am not a Catholic and am far from an expert. I am also not trying to convert you at all. I choose her to be a Catholic since the real Sineu is a religious city, mostly full of Catholic nuns, so it is realistic that Carlotta and Alejandro would raise their children as Catholics.

I want to thank all of my loyal readers for taking the time to read this seven part chapter and waiting for the uploads. The other chapters, unless they are based on two part episodes, will be one long chapter.

I also want to thank my family. They were the ones that had to look at a laptop for a child this past week as I worked on it everyday. Now your child is back!

Also, Custard was a real historic figure that is part of the first three seasons of DQMW. They changed things around a bit, but he is there, so it would be important to note that he will be in this story, especially with the fact that Annie hates U.S. Soldiers.

I just thought it would be interesting to note that this chapter was 54 pages.

Hope you loved it. Review! Now!


	10. Sickness and Strange Friends: Part One

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, locals and everything else that relates to _Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman_.That belongs to CBS Incorporated. Adrianna and freedom fighter time traveler agents belong to me. Have fun!

Adrianna sat in the wagon as they traveled to Colorado Springs. She was happy, something that rarely happened to her. She had gotten some great news from her best friend, Aldamora Santis-Raúl: she was pregnant.

Ever since they had become friends last fall, Adrianna finally found a friend that she could confide in. They both felt unbearable pain. Overcome they had, by anger and sadness over traumatic moments in their life. It had been hard for Aldamora to find real love in her life. Raped and beat by her two brothers and father, was what happened when she lived with them. No one helped her, not even her mother. Her mother only cared about prestige and a daughter was only there to barter to a kingdom for some political power. Her family told her that this was her fault and that she had to give them something in order to live there. Therefore, they took her will and her innocence.

She believed them as anyone would in her situation. It was not until she turned 16, that she found herself kicked out of their country. She was part of the royal house of Santis, the most evil and brutal of all freedom fighter royal houses.

They did not give her a thing in her life and forced her instead to live on her own until she landed in the freedom fighter tribe that she resided in now. It took years for her to be accepted and even longer to find love. She did not want to have anything to do with a man, fearing that they were all like the males in her family. She finally found it with Fredrico.

Adrianna also told the sad story of her life. She told her about her family and the thoughts that she felt in her life. She also told her about the one day that her Uncle, the late Carlucci king, told her to express her anger in combat and become an assassin. She also explained about her true love: Jasón Montoya. That included the bottled up feelings that she felt about him. She talked about the fact that she was still in love with him and how she felt that she would always wait for him to come to her and say that the last decade or so was a dream.

She was glad that Aldamora was married and now was with child. She now knew that she was going to be the best "aunt" and godmother that one could ask for. Moreover, as Michaela, the kids and she got off the wagon so that Robert E. could fix the wagon she smiled. She also did not pay attention to exactly what Brian and Michaela were discussing until she found them both looking at her as if she was supposed to answer a question.

"What?" She asked in her thick Spanish accent.

"The freedom fighters…are they immigrants?" Brian asked her and she looked at him blankly, processing what he had just said.

"Immigrants? What the? Oh! Oh! No Brian! They came to this place very recently; they mostly do not live in this area of the world. Of course, that is not really the way to explain it at all! It would get confusing and I do not know the specifics. You should talk to specialized t.t. agents or the physics expert that is my sister."

Brian looked a little confused at her answer, "What are t.t. agents?"

"t.t. stands for time travel. They go into time to protect the unprotected. It is a very risky job, especially with the whole idea of fate and things happening for a reason. I am not the person to do it, but it is the dream job of almost every little freedom fighter when they are a kid. It is very prestigious."

"What does pretigous mean?" He asked in almost wonder.

"It means that they are very important people. They are placed almost above the kings and queens," answered Adrianna with a smile.

"They go into time? How can they do that?" asked Colleen.

"With time travel vehicles of course!" Adrianna answered, moving ahead and not wanting to continue the subject.

As they went into the mercantile, Adrianna heard horses. It was not hard to tell and she found that she was correct with further inquiry.

The supposed leader was not a man, but a woman. She was tall with brunette hair in a bun, a cowboy hat and an opened up vest. She looked the part of a cowgirl. As she went into the mercantile, she gave the look of a woman who was serious about life.

The kid hugged her; she could tell that they loved her. She looked at Adrianna as if she knew her.

"I didn't know about your mother's death until I was halfway across old Mexico," she said looking at Adrianna. She could tell that she thought she was Mexican.

Instead of saying something diplomatic about Majorca, she just stared at her with a look of anger.

"So what part of Mexico are you from?" She asked looking at Adrianna.

Adrianna did not answer her.

"Oh, I see. ¿De qué parte de México son usted?" She asked Adrianna.

Adrianna did not answer her.

"What's wrong Amiga?" Brian asked her, confused about why she was not answering.

She took an exasperated breath like this was a small annoyance.

"¡Perdón, yo no hablo a mexicano!" Adrianna said very sarcastically.

"Oh, I see. I am sorry, I do not speak Mexican. Just because I have an accent, tanned skin and raven, hair does not mean that I am Mexican! I am from Majorca! An island off of Spain." Adrianna said very angrily.

The woman looked taken aback, but soon calmed herself.

"Are Mexican's too good for you Miss…"

"Martiz, Doctora Martiz!" She replied very angrily. "And I do not think that at all. I have never met a Mexican, but am getting irked that people keep calling me that! What if I called you a.…a…." However, before Adrianna could answer, she found that a hand had gone over her mouth.

She looked around and saw Aldamora, with long hair and beautiful black dress slowly shaking her head. She was holding a white basket and Fredrico was behind her, trying not to laugh.

"Hello Señora Davis. My friend here is gets a little irked when she gets called a Mexican." Aldamora said, holding Adrianna by the shoulders painfully.

The woman nodded and went looked at Michaela, who looked a little upset.

"Olive Davis," she then put out her hand to shake it. Michaela shook her head, frowning a little.

"She's a real doctor all the way from Boston!" Colleen said and they hugged.

Olive Davis looked at Michaela and then Adrianna, getting the feeling that they knew each other.

"Everyone calls her Dr. Mike 'cept me! I get to call her Ma!' Brian said excitedly.

Adrianna could tell that this was not pleasing to the ear of this Olive Davis, because she gave a look like she was betrayed, like how Charlotte would dare do this to me. She looked very surprised.

"Charlotte gave them to her, on her death bed," Loren said solemnly.

"That's right," she said not really believing it, but trying to sound conversational.

Adrianna still looked angered as Michaela and Olive both looked at each other as if they were silently declaring war with each other. A woman of darker skin came and talked of a sick man. Michaela was going to treat him, but of course, Olive stopped her asking Jake for help. Adrianna did not need to deal with the hypocrisy of the white man and instead walked with Aldamora and Fredrico.

She did give one last look at Olive and she looked back. The stare that she gave Olive would have killed a lesser person. Olive looked back at her and swore for a second that she had some strange markings on her face, similar to some that some cult of mysterious females that killed and mutilated bodies had. It did not really look like it was there and she did not know enough about the women, except that they had strange tattoos all over their bodies and strange enough: gills.

Adrianna looked at Aldamora, still angry.

"I do not like that mujer."

Aldamora smiled and made sure that no one was listening.

"Olive Davis is a very outright woman. She is also mostly nice to everyone else. She doesn't like Michaela because she is not from around here and because she has what she believes are hers: the children."

Adrianna scoffed. "I usually do not hate people. That woman is just evil!" Adrianna stated and walked to Fredrico's wagon.

When they were out of the town limits, Adrianna felt someone smack the back of her head, because she was sitting opposite Aldamora and Fredrico. She massaged her head and turned around.

"What was that about?" She asked, a little angry.

"I want to know what you thought you were doing. If you start to stir up trouble, the whites will get angry and will attack us!" Aldamora said very seriously.

"I know that. I hate being called a Mexican is just something that I am not one and do not ever plan going to there!" Adrianna replied, almost yelling.

"Hey! Mexico is not that bad! I went there once. If not the beautiful countryside and culture, it is the beautiful woman that gets me excited, if you know what I mean!"

The response got a slap in the back of the head for him and he decided to shut up about the whole thing. When they did get there, Adrianna saw four or five time traveler vehicles lined outside of the village walls. They got off their wagons and walked inside, not sure what was going to happen.

What they saw was a big platform with a strange looking woman on it, chained to metal bars by her hands, feet and waist. About twenty time travel agents were guarding her. They were hitting her with either metal rods or talking to the Queen, who looked very stern and serious.

Adrianna looked at the whole situation and felt bad for the stranger. She had raven hair that looked to be in small tight curls and went to her shoulders. Her outfit was different, consisting of a dress that went down to her knees. Not only that, but it looked like she had sewn together patches of different clothes together into one dress. There was no one way to describe it, except that it looked ridiculous, even for a freedom fighter.

She was also wearing what looking like a multi-colored scarf tied around her head, instead of her neck. She looked very sad and depressed and Adrianna wanted to help her.

"I wonder what she did." Fredrico asked a voice a little higher than usual.

"I do not know, but one think I have to say is that she came from a strange time period!" Aldamora said, laughing at her."

The Queen had finished talking to the freedom fighters and they soon left. Throwing the keys to the Queen and leaving without saying a word. One of them recognized Adrianna and walked right to her. She was not sure what he was about to do when he grabbed her and kissed her hard. Adrianna was so shocked that she did nothing for about a second. He kept forcing his tongue in and she answered with a kiss of her own. She kept thinking of Jasón and how she would feel, kissing him while in his arms. Before she knew it, someone pulled her away from the agent who blew her a kiss and she soon recognized him. He was an egotistical jerk who would keep advancing on her, even when she said no. Soon he left the place that they both were resting before missions and she never saw him again. He was the reason that she hated male time travel agents. It was also the reason that she stayed with being an assassin and not an agent. She liked being alone, she liked the fact that there was not a man trying to undress her with his perverted eyes.

Aldamora and Fredrico looked at her as if she was strange.

"What was that all about?" Aldamora asked half-amused half surprised.

"I was caught off guard and started to think about Jasón," Adrianna replied without thinking.

The Queen went onto the platform were the abused prisoner was sitting, her arm pulled away from her, due to the chain. The Queen then put up her arms and everyone was silent.

"Quiet my people!" She said it with equal force and dignity. Everyone became silent, looking up to her with respect.

"The agents have asked us to do a duty to them." As she said it, people started to groan, some every voicing their opinions with choice words. Adrianna could tell that they did not like the agents. They soon stopped when they saw the look on her face.

"This Señora here has come from a time period one hundred years in the future. Her crime? She kept going to the past to try to change events that fate perceived are not to be messed around with." When she stopped, there was a variety of reactions. Some were angered and looked at her with mistrust. Others were glad and had started to cheer her until the Queen slowly put up her hand.

"We are to take her in and she will die in this time period. She will not have the comforts that she is used to and not to go close to any time travel device. The agents have warned her to tell not of events in the future. If she does, then she will face death. If any of you ask, then you will face death. At that last statement, the most warring of the crowd started to cheer. The Queen gave her a forceful look and she looked even more scared than she had before.

"For your reference, she is from the year 1979. I will now cut the chains and set her free." She did that and as she started to massage the burns she had gotten, she looked ahead. Everyone started to go to their business, obviously wanting not to face death by asking the questions that plagued their hearts.

Adrianna had went to María and Jóse's later that day after making Aldamora promise that she would not overexert herself. Adrianna had seen a couple births in her life and remembered the pregnancy that produced Isabella. She did not want any problems since this child was going to be very close the Adrianna's heart.

She walked in to hear some strange words from a strange voice. It sounded more of an American accent.

"That's groovy. I will be fine here!"

Adrianna walked into their spare room to see the girl from 1979. She was wearing the same outfit and was evidently limping. She looked at Adrianna, trying to recognize her. María soon came in, smiled at Adrianna, and pointed toward the girl.

"Now Anna, I have to introduce you to someone from the future. She cannot tell that much about her family and her past, but this is Jocoasta Benitz. She is going to live here."

Jocoasta put out her hand and Adrianna shook it.

"What can you talk of?" Adrianna asked, a little curious about this girl from the future.

"I can talk of inventions, but that is about all I can talk about. I cannot tell you who my family was and events in the world in the future. If you were to know about wars or who was the United States president was, I could alter events. That is why I am here," she said very conversationally.

"Can I ask what you did?" Adrianna asked cautiously.

"I went to1492 and tried to stop the bastard from finding the West Indies. I wanted to stop him from hurting the natives," she soon stopped and pointed around the house.

"I want to stop this! I was caught before I could do a thing and was jailed by that time traveler agent that kissed you," she said it angrily.

Jóse then came in, only wearing a towel. He had evidently just taken a bath. Because of that, he was still wet; he was holding another towel that he was wiping his chest with the towel. María rolled her ryes, obviously disgusted with her brother. Jocoasta and Adrianna did not say a thing, looking at his chest. He of course realized that and smiled at both of them. He looked more at Adrianna than Jocoasta and walked to her.

"What do you want my Adrianna?" He asked seductively.

Adrianna looked nervous and started to walk back a little, trying to get away from him.

"I-I just wanted to see how you guys were doing," she said very nervously, trying not to stare at his muscular chest.

He walked to her, stopping when she was against the wall. He was against her, grabbing a strand of her hair and moving his fingers to the bottom of the strand. He then kissed her on the cheek and she blushed.

María then grabbed him and threw him on the couch.

"You are a pervert! Stop hitting on Anna every time that she comes here," she yelled to her brother.

Adrianna laughed and decided that this was the time to leave.

She left and went home, feeling stupid at the way she acted toward Joey. She had felt this attraction toward him and he did too. They both wanted each other but Joey was more forward than Adrianna was. She got along well with him, but she still had a part of her heart for Jas and she felt like she was betraying him if she were to fall in love with another man. She did not ever want to do that, so she did not open her heart for him.

Adri woke up early the next morning and went to the Catholic Church that she usually resided in at Sundays. She liked it there and they accepted her, mostly because she was from a very Catholic city that is mostly full of nuns. She brought her traditions to the church and she found that this was the only place where she knew that she would like everyone there.

She ventured home and walked into the house to an interesting sight. Instead of a nice, quiet and _clean_ house, there was cooking supplies all over the place. Splurged flour was all over the place and that was nothing to what Michaela looked like. Adrianna felt that she had come into a snowstorm.

She tried to cover her mouth, so that Michaela would not see her laugh but she failed. Michaela looked defeated and threw the makeshift dough into the big bowl she had the ingredients in and sat down.

Adrianna walked over to her and gave her a small smile. She looked at the ingredients and started to try to clean up the "cake". Adrianna was still not sure what she was making and it did not look like a cake at all.

"You know, we all have things that we are not good at. Just because you can not bake, does not make you less of a woman or abnormal," Adrianna said, trying to cheer her up.

Michaela did not look at her and it came to Adrianna suddenly, why she was even doing it at all.

"It's that Davis mujer, qué?" Michaela looked up at her and nodded her head. Adrianna hugged her and continued. "You cannot do this. Just because the kids seem to like her, does not mean that they are going to move in with her. They are with us now and she is just going to have to realize that!"

Just as Adrianna finished, they heard a wagon come to a halt. It was of course the kids and Olive. Adrianna feigned a smile at her and watched the kids come in. She had cooked a great meal supposedly and made leftovers. Adrianna wanted to do something, but knew that it was not wise to raise suspicion that freedom fighters fought back.

"Well anytime I…I guess I have to get going, I have look after my sick cowhands anyway," Olive said.

She said goodbye to the kids and only gave Adrianna one look at her cheek. She had her engraving on the same cheek that she was looking at. She then left, and Adrianna became of lot more suspicious than she had before.

They went to the table and Adrianna saw for the first time that Brian was holding an irregular shaped object covered with dark paper.

"What to see our presents?" Brian asked who looked very excited at the prospect of showing the presents to everyone there.

"I sure would!" Adrianna turned around and saw Jocoasta and Jóse. He was wearing clothes this time. He was wearing nice dark velvet pants and a crisp white cotton shirt with black suspenders over them. Jocoasta was wearing a red blouse that was strange looking. It was loose cut and too big for her. What was even stranger was that there were oversized sleeves on the shirt. Oversized they were, than the rest of the shirt. She was also wearing a red knee high skirt that seemed to swing around when she walked. Add the strange black shoes with three white stripes on each foot and you had someone from a different period of time.

Joey walked to Adrianna and kissed her briefly on the neck. She blushed so much that she looked like a radish. Brian and Colleen laughed.

"That sounds bad!" Jocoasta said and everyone looked at her as if she was crazy.

"I'm sorry; it's slang from my time period."

"You're from a different time period?" Asked Michaela who did not seem to believe her at all.

"Yes, 1979."

"1979!" The kids and Michaela practically screamed.

Adrianna got out of the reverie and put up her hands.

"Whoa! Whoa! Now before you start asking questions about events that you do not know, you understand the rules of time travel. Do not ask questions and do not answer those. Jocoasta Benitz ignored that rule and now must live away from her family that she is probably very close to. She tried to stop Columbus from going to the new world. She wanted to save the lives of the future slain victims. Think about how dangerous his journey was! That was because of her. If she had succeeded, then she would have changed the course of human history. That also meant that future generations would not have been born! The whole human race would have been felt the effects for the rest of eternity, without even knowing it! Now I am just like you and I want to know what happens. Will there be wars? The only allowed thing that she can talk about is inventions. If she knows how to make them, she can. She cannot talk of the effect this will have on the future. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone was silent after Adrianna's speech and did not say a thing. Jocoasta was the first the say something.

"Presents? I love them! They are so bad!" After she said this, everyone looked at her as if she was crazy.

"Their not bad!" Brian said. Jocoasta smiled at him realizing that he did not understand.

"It's slang from my time. It means that it's good."

After she finished, everyone laughed at her statement. Adrianna went to her and put her arms on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, but you need to understand that we do not understand your slang! You must not say it if you can." Jocoasta nodded and looked at Brian waiting for him to open his present.

He did and he got a nice statue of a wolf. Adrianna walked over to it and her eyes widened.

"Es muy bella, Brian." Adrianna said in Spanish. Brian looked at her, not understanding.

"It means that it's very beautiful Brian," Adrianna said and smiled at him.

Colleen took out her present, which was a beautiful metal. Joey came over and looked at it.

"That's very nice. I think it matches the owner: beautiful and rare." Colleen blushed at that statement and Adrianna tried to look away, avoiding his gaze.

Matthew hesitated and he did it for a reason. His gift came in a beautiful case and came to be a gun.

Michaela did not look very happy to see his gift at all.

"Miss Olive says I'm old enough." Adrianna who was now behind Michaela shook her head, agreeing.

"Yes! That is true. I actually have a similar model myself. Got it a few years ago. It has proven useful. Killed a lot of scorpions with it."

Jocoasta smirked. "I have done that myself. You really need to shoot them in the head then ask questions. The royal house of Scorpion Canada should be destroyed for what they did in the 17th century to Princess Nicolette."

"I think that you both should go. I have no reason why you're here, but we need to discuss this alone," Adrianna said sternly, pushing them out of the house. She could distinctly hear, "Nice way to treat your friends!" Joey seemed to say it.

"What are scorpions?" Asked Brian, wondering what they were talking about before.

"They are the enemies of our people. They have yellow blood and a strange snake come out of the left hand of the males. They are evil and should be approached with caution," Adrianna sounded very serious and Brian looked scared.

"To kill another human being?" Michaela soon said to Matthew. Right at that moment, Adrianna felt like she was the lowest piece of scum in the world. She had done that, she had done it for four years. Of course, she never really considered U.S. Soldiers to be humans. They were too evil to be human.

"To protect my family," he said sternly.

Adrianna had crossed her arms, thinking of both sides of the situation.

"Miss Olive says he's the man of the house now," Brian said.

"I do not like this Davis character and do not trust her at all. Even with that, she brings up a valid point. Matthew must protect the family that is his job. I agree with you keeping the gun Matthew, but you must promise me that you will use is sparingly. You must use your other senses before you shoot. You must learn when to shoot and when not to. Freedom fighters hate guns, they think they are too easy. I can ask Aldamora to teach you, her family is experts in the art of gun fighting."

Matthew did not look like he expected that answer and he shook his head at her, giving her a small smile.

"You're still a young man." Michaela said to him, looking at Adrianna as if she wanted her to feel guilty.

"But a man." Matthew said it and Aldamora came in without Fredrico.

"I'm sorry, have I come at the wrong time?" She asked Adrianna and Michaela came up to her, hoping to stop her teaching Matthew.

"Whatever he says, don't do it." She them left, angry.

"O.K.! Can I ask what that is – Oh my! I have not seen one of these in years! They are best in close range, but I can say that it can shoot to about 50 feet," she looked at Adrianna confused. "I thought you gave it up. Why do you have this gun? Especially in front of the white children?"

Stepping back, and taken aback she frowned at the misunderstanding of her best friend.

"No, no, no, no! This is not mine! It belongs to Matthew!"

Aldamora looked at him and he gave her a nervous smile. She tapped the gun and looked him in the eye.

"A good gun for the beginner. Can I?" She picked up the gun and started to examine it. She also started to twirl it with her left hand and pretending to shoot. Brian looked very impressed.

"Can you teach me?" Matthew nervously asked looking at her.

Her hair went back to a Mohawk and she put it back into the case. She found a chair and sat down, obviously pondering the situation.

"Yes, but I want you to be careful. You must only use it at practices and in extreme danger. Too many young and foolish white men have shot off the gun thinking they were in danger. I am going to teach you the tricks of the Santis royal house. You must keep it a secret, do not tell a soul, except Adri, if you must." She smiled and looked up at Adrianna.

"So! I want to know what Joey thinks he is doing." She asked it, going off in the direction of the barn.

"He wants my body, I think," Adrianna said it very uncertainly.

"You do not know Joey like I do. He is not like that. He likes you no only, because you are a beautiful woman, but because he wants you better. He wants to make you happy."

They found their selves in the barn and were sitting on Adrianna's bed with Aldamora took her friends hand.

"You must move on. Jasón might or might not get out of jail. Think about what he will be like if he does. He will not be the same. I have been to the jail. They beat and rape these people, even if they are men! He will have physical and mental scars on his body that you cannot stop. You know what that is like! Jasón is dead. You must move on!"

Adrianna had tears in her eyes and she angrily wiped them away. Aldamora left, wanting to help her friend.

The truth was that Adrianna did not want to do that. She loved Jasón and never thought she would ever betray him. She certainly was not going to start now. She went to sleep early that day, wanting to forget it all.

Adrianna did not follow Michaela to town that day, wanting to try instead to get back to psychology; it was her real passion and something that was always in the back of her mind in the past year. She had loved the year that she studied the science. The brain was something that always fascinated her. How could it control the whole body? Does it control everything?

Not only was there that, but the physical aspects like surgery were interesting to her. She had dealt with many cases of disorders of the brain, some of them involving the knife.

She had performed a few surgeries where she had to deal with things like tumors and she knew enough to perform the surgery, but still was unsure of herself.

She also wanted to deal with the disorders like split personalities and manic depression. She was looking through all of the research when Brian came by and looked at her papers.

"What's this?" He asked, looking at the papers.

"Research Brian, I actually studied with top scientists. We were studying a variety of things, all of them about disorders of the brain," Adrianna said it not paying attention to him and trying to sort through the papers.

Colleen came over looking at the papers. "What did you study?" She asked, looking very interested.

"A lot of things. There is this new science called psychology, the study of the mind. That is what we did. We found that certain parts of the brain did different things. We also worked with reflexes and disorders. The one thing that I wanted to do was work with victims of these disorders. I also want to know all about the brain. Why do certain people act the way they do? There is so much about this science that we have to discover, and you would be surprised to know that this science has been around a very long time, it is just that everyone did not classify it as psychology."

They heard a gunshot in the background and Adrianna could tell that Aldamora was teaching Matthew how to how to shoot the gun.

Colleen was now joining her, looking at her research while Adrianna was analyzing it, when Michaela burst in the house, looking serious.

"We have a problem Adrianna, a serious problem."

Adrianna looked up from her papers, concerned.

"What is wrong Michaela?"

"That cowboy that was sick was not just sick with the common cold. He had influenza!"

Adrianna dropped the papers that she was holding and they fell on the table, some even fell to the ground.

"What do you want me to do?"

"We're going to town and you kids will stay here. You do not need to argue, because it will not get you anywhere."

Adrianna looked very stern. "She's right! We do not have that much medicine, not enough to cure the whole town. You need to stay here; you do not want to get sick from that. Isabella almost died from it when she was about seven. Everyone put the complete royal house on alert. No one died, but that was just because we were living with a royal family, rulers of a country. We are not there now and I doubt we will be able to get any refills. Please listen to us."

Adrianna then got on her horse and they both went to town, hoping that they could stop the epidemic, before it became too big.


	11. Sickness and Strange Friends: Part Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, locals and everything else that relates to _Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman_.That belongs to CBS Incorporated. Adrianna and freedom fighter time traveler agents belong to me. Have fun!

They stopped at the barbershop, amid dozens of the sick who did not look very well. Adrianna walked behind her and they walked in to see what Jake was doing to stop it. What he was doing was bleeding the patients. Adrianna was so surprised and disturbed at what was happening that she broke her oath to stay out of the white man business.

"Dios mió! You idiot! You are killing him!"

She walked in and he did not look at all pleased to see her or Michaela there.

"I'm letting out the poison out of him, that's what I'm doing."

Adrianna scoffed at him. "It's not poison at all. It is not some drink that he took when he was not looking! It is something else. I could try to explain it to you, but with your limited intellect, I seriously doubt that you would understand at all."

Adrianna left, feeling sick and disgusted. She then took a walk to the church and back when she saw Michaela enter somewhere. She followed and opened the door, almost hitting Davis in the process.

"The best things to keep busy. That's what I did when my husband died. I got up the next morning and got right on with running the ranch," Olive said.

"Dios mió! ¡Usted vestido blanco mantiene obteniendo más estúpido el más lejano en el pueblo que obtengo!" Adrianna said exasperated.

"I do not know that much Spanish, but I heard stupid and white." Olive was crossing her arms, looking at Adrianna angrily.

Adrianna clapped her hands and even did a little cheer.

"You're smarter than I thought you were. I said, 'My god! You whites keep getting stupider the farther into town I get!' I think that you deserve a prize!" Adrianna was getting closer looking very dangerous while clutching onto her weapon. Michaela just realized the confrontation and while holding the baby looked at Adrianna's back.

"Adrianna stop! We do not need this. Please come over and help me." Adrianna stopped and turned around, swallowing her pride.

She went over to the baby and tried to comfort him. Michaela and Olive argued about what to o about Emily.

It became a lot more interesting when Olive and Michaela started to voice their true feelings.

"You have ranching expertise, you have medical expertise. I don't tell you how to work your cattle, so don't tell me how to treat my patients!" Adrianna, who was still holding the baby, made a sound that sounded more like a laugh concealed into a cough. She them took the baby started to hold him, walking to the door. Michaela had Emily and started to go to the door, but turned around, looking at Olive.

"And I'd appreciate it if you consult with me before gifting any of my children with dangerous weapons," Michaela said.

"Your children? Charlotte was my best friend. Truth to right, those children should be living with me," Olive answered her.

"But it wasn't your name that she spoke on her death bed," both Adrianna and Michaela said at the same time.

Adrianna and Michaela went to the wagon that Emily was on and helped her up to it, and then Adrianna gave her the baby. As soon as her husband left Michaela and Adrianna looked at each other.

"Exactly what are we going to do?" Adrianna asked.

"We need to tell them that it is in the best interest to listen to us. We have to explain what it is," Michaela, answered her.

"To Hombre Blanco? You want to try to explain this to the white man. That is very interesting; I wonder how that is going to work out? I am sorry but I am sick and tired of the ways of the white man, he will not listen to us, unless we are white men. Good luck with that and tell me what happens! I'm going to the post office and look to see if my sister replied to the letter that I sent out a couple months ago."

"Now wait a minute! You are leaving me?"

They both had started toward the post office.

"I do not want conflict now! That is all that I get with the white man! He looks at me and after he has done undressing me with his eyes, he treats me like nothing! In my personal opinion, you should just let them all die! They deserve it!"

Adrianna started to walk faster, trying to get away from Michaela. They were about a few feet away from the post office when Michaela caught up to Adrianna and grabbed her by the shoulder. She soon turned her around and looked and the angry eyes of Adrianna.

"You took a Hippocratic oath! Does that mean anything to you at all?"

Adrianna looked at Michaela, her eyes cold and malevolent.

"Do they have oaths to understand each other? Is there an oath that will change people's views of female doctors! Is there an oath to stop racism? I think not! I will stand here, a female doctor from a small island off Spain, who is probably better than most male doctors out there, but does that matter? The answer is always no! Forget about it, I am going off to the bridge to think! Good luck trying to tell the white man about something he is too stupid to understand!" Adrianna stormed off, trying to stop the anger that was receding.

So she walked, she walked away trying to forget about all of the anger and hatred that she felt toward all whites. She was just about to sit on the side when she met Jocoasta. She was wearing long boots that seemed to reach to her knees, but Adrianna could not tell because she was wearing a light pink dress that went to her knees and was all buttons on the front.

"What it is Dr. Martiz?" Jocoasta asked and Adrianna stared at her blankly, not sure what she was saying.

"I mean, what's up, how's it going?"

"Oh! I'm….really not in the mood to talk."

"What do you mean?"

"It's just….the people of the town are the worst. You have different type of white people and sádico's. There are the ones like Michaela who are good and kind and do not treat you like you are a piece of dirt. Then there are the people who do not like different things. They look at your skin and judge you. They treat you differently because you are different and poor. They do not like difference and so they hate you. That has happened my whole life, everywhere I go. I hate confronting them about things, like this influenza epidemic. They do not want to listen to you because of what you are. That is what I have had live with my whole life."

Jocoasta looked at Adrianna and frowned.

"I know that it's hard now for us, probably more for you than me since I have pale skin. I want you to confront them; do not run from them that are what they want you to do. They want to scare you, want you to stay away. Beat them at their stupid game!"

Adrianna nodded her head and gave a smirk. "You're right! I'm not going to let them control me and tell me that I can not practice medicine because I'm not from America!"

Adrianna then looked out at the town and saw Michaela trying to get into the Boarding House. She ran as fast as she could, running to her.

Sully had already come and broke the boards of one door.

Adrianna came, followed by Jocoasta and came to the other door; she looked at the board and easily ripped it out. She then ripped out the other board and opened the door.

They all looked at her stunned. Jake then went to the board at a window and tried to break the board, it did not work and he felt stupid. Adrianna gave him a self-satisfied smile.

"Isn't it interesting that a woman of smaller statue than you and do something you can't?"

Michaela made the announcement to come or risk the whole town wiping out. Adrianna walked up to her and nodded. She took out her hand and Michaela shook it.

"Dr. Adrianna Martiz, M.D. expert in matters of the brain here to help you Dr. Michaela Quinn."

Michaela smiled and hugged her.

"Yes! I love happy endings!" Jocoasta almost screamed and went to hug Adrianna.

She was surprised by the hug and fell down. They both got off each other in a strange and awkward moment.

"Sorry Martiz. I actually got the stupid flu once and so I would like to help!"

"Sure! We need all of the help we can get."

They both went into the "hospital" getting things ready for the patents that would arrive.

A few hours' later things were going fine. Joey came with María and with Jocoasta; there were only two patients to every caretaker. Adrianna was taking care of a man in his mid thirties who was not getting better when she saw Matthew come in, holding Brian.

"Is he sick?"

"Yes!"

Adrianna widened her eyes and Joey came to her.

"Anna, are you ok?" He asked her concerned, pushing away a loose strand of hair on her face. She looked at him in the eyes deeply, vulnerability etched on her face.

"Brian has it!" She said it so softly that he barely heard her. She did something that she told herself she would never do: she leaned on his shoulder and silent tears fell from her face. He cajoled her and kissed her forehead, slowly rocking her. She closed her eyes and soon fell to the ground, slipping into unconsciousness.

Adrianna fell to the ground because is infected with the flu. The body of the freedom fighter is very weak in many aspects. Many diseases can kill a freedom fighter. The influenza infects various parts of the body, including the brain. Unfortunately, this causes the victim to fall into a deep coma and they might never get out of it….

Joey carried her limp body out where Colleen and Michaela were arguing. Michaela saw her body and put her hand to her mouth.

"She has influenza!" Joey had tears in her eyes, he was almost crying.

"Take her up to a spare room," Michaela said.

Joey took her up to the spare room and put her in the bed. She still had her eyes closed, but did not respond to him at all. The freedom fighters went to her room, all full of fear.

"What do we do? There is no way that she will wake up!" María was the first to say something.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT MARÍA!" Jóse yelled at his sister, the most distraught.

Joey then ran to Adrianna and briefly kissed her on the mouth. She did not respond to him at all. Jocoasta looked scared and put her hand on her heart.

"I was just talking to her. That is what is so strange about this! She was just there, taking care of all of those white men! It does not seem fair at all. Why her?"

María went to Jocoasta and hugged her. They gave each other a sad smile and left the room.

"What are you doing?" Jóse went to María and grabbed her.

She forcefully took his hands off herself and walked downstairs where she saw Colleen looking at Adrianna's nunchakus, obviously not knowing what they were.

"Go and look after Anna. She needs you now; maybe talking to her will wake her up."

Joey nodded his head very angrily and left the room. María went to Colleen who kept looking at the nanchakus, wondering what they were. She looked at María, confused.

"What is this?"

"These are nunchackus; they are weapons that are used for close contact. You twirl this around and hit whoever you are attacking."

María now had them in her hands and then cautiously wrapped them in her shawl. Colleen looked at the whole event, not understanding at all.

"Why are you doing that?"

María looked at her, very serious.

"The nunchaku is a representation of oneself in our culture. These are almost a part of our soul, our closest weapon. You are to treat this with respect and you are not to touch this at all. The owner is the only one who can actually touch it. You do not want to do that, especially to a friend of yours. These are Adrianna's and they must be protected for when she wakes up."

María then took the nunchackus wrapped in the shawl and walked up to her room and gave them to her.

"That is still true in my time. I carry mine like my life," Jocoasta said.

María walked up to the room where Joey had put her in clothes that are more comfortable and was tucking her in bed. He looked up when he saw her and frowned.

"What do you want?" He asked rather forcefully.

"She dropped her nuns. I came in to put them in a safe place."

Joey got up and found an empty chair to put the weapon on and then María put them on the chair. They looked at each other and then to Adrianna.

A few hours later and the patients lined up. There did not seem to be one place where there was not a patient. María, Jocoasta, Olive and Matthew were attending the patients on the ground floor. There was a sad moment when one of the Swedish immigrants died and so Matthew and the reverend took the man's dead body to the settlement camp. The language and culture barrier did not matter because the pain was the same.

Later that day, almost everyone was on the ground floor when Jóse came down only one button on his shirt closed, he did not look well. María went to her brother and tried to hug him, he did not respond. Instead, he walked right to Michaela and looked her in the eye.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Michaela looked taken aback at the question and looked at him in anger. María walked up to him and slapped him in the face.

"Yelling will not do a thing to solve the situation. You are just making it worse," María said to her brother.

Jocoasta went to Michaela will a disturbingly sad look on her face.

"Freedom fighters have different immune systems. The influenza virus puts one in a coma. Anna might never get out of it," Jocoasta said sadly to Michaela.

"A coma? I have wondered why she has not had a physical signs of influenza. I was starting to think that she had just passed out."

Jóse looked at her angrily and walked up to her room, too angry to think about the situation. María and Jocoasta nodded their heads.

"We need to do something about Adrianna." María was the first one to say something.

"What can we do?" Michaela asked both females.

"The first thing is to inform her sister," María said.

"She has a sister?" Olive asked.

"Yes, her name's Isabella and she is going to some school for physics. The only problem is I do not know where this school is?" Michaela said.

"It's easy," María said.

"Easy?" Almost everyone said it, looking at her as if she was crazy.

"If they are members of the royal house of Carlucci then they will take her to the best freedom fighter college for women in the world. The libertdad luchares escuela de mujeres! It's in Spain!"

"How are we going to send it?" Jocoasta asked, not sure what the communications were like in this time period.

"Telegraph! The operator must be around here." María replied to her.

"The only problem is that the operator is sick with the flu; there is no way that he can help you?" Reverend Johnson said, looking at the strange dress that Jocoasta was wearing.

"I'll just send it now; I know enough of the code to give her the message."

María then left, not waiting for everyone else to follow her.

Things were worsening in Colorado Springs. The much-needed medicine was slowly becoming less and less, Michaela was starting to show the symptoms of the flu and Jóse had locked the door to Adrianna's room and only left to go to the bathroom.

That night María unlocked the door the Adrianna's room and saw Jóse looking at her, very unemotional.

"This is stupid!" When she said that, Jóse looked at her angry.

"What the hell do you want?"

"I want to know what your problem is. You have known this woman for less than a year and yet you are protective of her? You act like she's your wife!"

Jóse looked at his sister, getting up abruptly from the bed that Adrianna and it seemed he was sharing. He stood up and walked closer to his sister.

"I seem to be the only one who cares about her!"

"Really? You care for this woman. You love her. You cannot be in a relationship with her. Just because some beautiful ex-assassin storms into town, claiming to be a doctor, while hating everything, does not mean that she is perfect for you!"

"Adrianna is someone that I care about! She is smart and beautiful and needs a friend!"

"She has one with the Santis called Aldamora! She does not feel the same for you!"

"How do you know? She does not seem interested with anyone else!"

"I overheard her talking to Aldamora once. She is in love with a man named Jasón. I do not know his last name, but I think he is the same Jasón that killed the Carlucci king and then tried to control the government. He is now in jail and will never come back, but she is deeply in love with him. You would just be a replacement to her. She would never love you!"

Jóse became so mad that he forced his sister out of the room very physically. She went out and he started to lock the door again. He went to her bed and started to lay on it as he had before. He kissed her on the forehead and started to rub her shoulders.

"I do not care what they say. I love you; I not Jasón am the better man. He can rot in jail, because he is never going to be with you. I will show you what real love is. I am going to show you what it feels like to be swept up by your feet and how to fall in love." He then kissed her deeply on the neck and fell asleep next to her.

The next day Jocoasta went to help at the "hospital". She had wanted to help for so many reasons, not only because these were people, but also because she was treated like an outsider by almost all of the freedom fighters. She walked in and saw one of the whores ask for help. Olive did not want her there and said, "She's a whore." This angered Jocoasta and she walked into the room way deeper.

"You should not have any say in this matter since it was your fault that this epidemic is even here. Now shut up!"

Olive looked at her angry and left the room. Myra smiled at her and Jocoasta smiled back.

They soon heard Jóse scream and everyone ran up to the room. Adrianna had finally awoken, but her eyes looked glossy and very strange. Michaela went to her and looked her in the eye.

"Are you ok?"

"Sí, por supuesto! I just feel a little strange, like I am not here. Am I dead?"

"No! You're alive!" Jóse almost screamed it and then kissed her, but Adrianna did not respond but instead got up, only to realize that she was wearing very little. She widened her eyes and put a sheet over her body.

"Can I ask that everyone leave? I'm practically naked under here!"

They all listened to her, glad that she was ok and left the room.

Adrianna got dressed and went to Brian's room. Colleen was there, sponging him down.

"How is he?"

"Not good at all, his fever has still not broke. You're ok right?"

"Yes. I just feel a little strange. I was gone and now I am here. I remember hearing things, but I cannot understand them. I am just glad that I am fine. I'm here to help take care of all of you."

She walked to the bed and helped sponge Brian.

Adrianna went downstairs that night, helping the patients when Jake came in, looking like hell. She came over and looked him in the eye, not sure what to think.

"I guess he has it, isn't that wonderful."

Adrianna then came toward him and sat on the bed. She took the bowl from Colleen's hands and started to sponge him down. Michaela gave him the drink, which he drank hungrily.

"I appreciate this," said at both women. Adrianna looked confused, but continued to cool him down anyway while looking at Michaela.

"I want you to rest Michaela!"

She shook her head. "No, I can't."

Adrianna looked at her as if she was crazy.

"You can't help anyone if you're dead."

Michaela looked at Adrianna and did not say a thing.

The next day Adrianna kept a watchful eye, on Michaela. She knew that it was only a mater of time before she would pass out. The medicine was virtually gone and as she put the last remaining contents in, Adrianna did not feel positive or confident about the situation.

She was checking on Jake when she heard Colleen yell "Dr. Mike!" Adrianna ran up to Brian's room when she saw him, his fever had broken. They all celebrated this happy moment and Adrianna was really starting to think that things were going to get better.

Adrianna followed Michaela as she went outside and told Sully and Matthew that Brian was going to be all right. After she told him she finally did it, she finally passed out.

Adrianna knew it was going to happen so she was not surprised. She stood there and watched Sully catch her and take her up to her room. Adrianna had taken her out of her dress and with the help of Colleen, she was sponging her down. Adrianna stopped and looked at Sully.

"I know that the natives of this land have used the advantage of the plants of this area for medicinal purposes. Is there a medicine for the influenza?" Adrianna asked Sully.

He shook his head and told her of the tea that they can make. He was about to leave but Matthew stopped him.

"Let me go," he said to Adrianna and Sully.

Sully took off one of his necklaces that contained a feather and a pouch, and gave it to Matthew. He then gave him instructions.

As Matthew went to search for Cloud Dancing, he was being watched. The only problem was that this person was not a friend, nor was he an enemy. He was more of a watcher who had been watching over the family. He followed Matthew when he went out of the limits of the town and when he came in conflict with the Natives.

The stranger rode to where they were and put out his hand. The Natives stopped what they were doing and nodded their heads to the man. He pushed Matthew off his horse and ripped the necklace Sully had given him.

"You want Cloud Dancing? You are going to have to fight for it! You think you can shoot a gun boy!" He said it in a low growl that scared Matthew. He threw a punch to his gut and then told the natives what he wanted. They nodded their heads and Cloud Dancing came and followed him back to town. Matthew saw the man with dark eyes; hair and dark trench coat look at him and then leave on horseback in the distance.

Meanwhile Olive, Adrianna and Emily were busy sponging Michaela, waiting for any sign of Matthew and Cloud Dancing. Adrianna had completely forgotten the animosity that she had felt for Olive and she seemed to also. They had gotten her on her stomach and were sponging her back, trying their best to cool her down.

Adrianna looked up once and saw Sully who stayed at the door, not wanting to come in, since Michaela was not really fully clothed. Adrianna walked to him and crossed her arms, showing real fear in her eyes.

She walked out as Brian asked for Sully. He then saw Adrianna and asked for her too.

"Want to see ma," he stated.

"She's sleeping," Sully said and Adrianna nodded.

"What's wrong with her?"

"She caught the gripe just like you did," Sully replied.

"That's the room where my real ma died."

"Don't go thinkin' like that."

"He's right Brian. You must think positive. It might seem hard to do right now, but you must," Adrianna said consolingly.

"She's not gonna die," Sully said.

"Promise?" Asked Brian, wanting to see her alive.

"Promise," Sully said and they shook on it.

He then picked him up and took him back to his room.

Adrianna went back to Michaela's room and saw that she was starting to look delirious. This was of interest to her since she studied the Brian. Does the virus go into their brain? That was something she wondered about.

Olive took a blanket and put it over her body. Adrianna had tears falling from her face and she left the room, not thinking that she would ever die, but starting to believe that she was dying.

Before she knew it, she saw Matthew come and say that he was there. Sully carried Michaela to this Cloud Dancing, besides the fact that Olive was against it. Adrianna got on her horse and went with them, besides the objections of a very angry and somewhat possessive Jóse.

Adrianna watched in wonder as Cloud Dancing preformed a ritual to help her. She had always respected the ways of the Native American and as she watched him make the tea and perform a ceremonial ritual.

There was a fire burning and as she looked into the smoke, she thought that she saw someone. She squinted her eyes and saw someone. He looked to be in his thirties with a dark trench coat and long raven hair that seemed to go to his shoulders. He looked at her angrily with his deep blue eyes. Adrianna looked away; looking at Michaela was lying on the ground, surrounded by circular stones. She looked back and he was gone.

The tea was gone and Sully raised Michaela's head, while Cloud Dancing gave her the drink.

They came in with Jake looking angry to see Cloud Dancing there. He gave Olive the supplies as Sully gave her directions for the tea. Emily took the supplies since Olive looked at them in disgust. Adrianna walked in very slowly, not saying a thing. She just walked around, making a lot of noise as she paced the room. She stopped when she heard hooves and turned around, looking very evil.

Custer walked in and Adrianna looked at him, with mistrust in her eyes. He reminded her of Shaken, someone who was not really human, someone who only cared about death and how many people he could kill.

She took out a worm and dissected it in her mouth. She separated the contents in her mouth, skin on left and guts on right. She them slowly walked to Custer and spit out the guts right into his face. She then took out her nunchakus and twirled them around threaten. She then walked out of the room, not saying a thing.

María smirked at Custer who did not look pleased at all.

"In the libertdad luchares cultura, the spitting of worm guts is a severe disrespect. You might want to watch out, she already hates you!"

All of the freedom fighters started to laugh and soon left the room.

Adrianna watched Michaela and prayed that she was fine. She watched her, hoping that the tea would work; she did not know what she would do.

Michaela finally woke up that night, as Sully was asleep. Adrianna could not sleep, afraid of what was going to happen. Adrianna came to her and gave her a big hug, tears falling from her face.

"I thought you were going to die, but I prayed for you and my prayers were answered! Welcome back Mikey!" Adrianna said to her and they both were crying."

This woke up Sully, he went to get the kids and Olive, and Michaela looked at the tea that she was given. She looked at Adrianna, silently asking if this was the native tea. She shook her head and went to the door smiling.

Everyone came in and was so happy and so there were hugs around. Adrianna soon left and as she looked at her family she thought about all that, she had struggled in her life. Sickness and death will occur, but you cannot let that rule your life. As she walked down the stairs and greeted the freedom fighters, she knew that she had to live positively.

She went on her horse and went home, thinking of that mysterious man that she saw in the smoke as he watched over her in the distance.


	12. Attack of the Annoying Sister: Part One

Disclaimer: I do not own _Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman_ or anything that relates to that. That belongs to CBS INC. I am just borrowing them for a while. I just might keep Sully a little longer. All of the new and strange characters belong to me, even though I might want to sell Isabella! Maybe you would like her for a while?

Isabella Martiz did not think for one second that she had a normal life. It did not matter what culture one looked at. She lost her parents when she was four months old due to a brutal and deadly attack by U.S. soldiers and so her sister took care of her until she was two. When her uncle found out about her, they lived in a castle as princesses and they got whatever they wanted. Adrianna went off to train as an assassin so that she could kill U.S. soldiers for a living and her uncle, who she loved a lot, went and showed her some of the cool inventions they were making.

Her favorite thing to do when she was young was to explore the world. She explored the castle a lot and with the help of her cousins, she explored all of the secret areas there. She also liked to explore nature and find out why things happened the way they did. This need for knowledge led her to the college she was at and her intense love of physics. She loved making things and seeing why things acted that way, they did.

She had just gotten off from a somewhat hard day where she had piles of assignments to do by the next few days, that she did not realize that there was a note on her door. It took a while for her to comprehend anything at all. In fact, the only thing that she wanted to comprehend was the back of her eyelids, which she did, falling asleep very fast.

"Bella! Bella! Wake up you idiot!" Isabella slowly woke up, feeling very irked.

"What do you want Punta? I'm sure there's some hot man that you want to do, so just do him!"

Being that Isabella always talked to her best friend this way, she did not seem at all upset. She instead threw a rather large bucket of water on her face. This really upset Isabella.

"Whore! What the hell is your problem?" Isabella said it rather angrily.

"You got a telegram! It's from some place called Colorado Sprin"—

Isabella ripped the telegram out of her hands with such force that she ripped the bottom half of it.

_Sister in coma, influenza, come as fast as possible. _Isabella finished reading the telegram and her eyes widened in fear.

"Oh my!"

"What!" Her best friends asked, reading the telegram. She then put her hands to her mouth and gasped.

"She got the flu? Stupid whites! They are so stupid!"

Isabella looked at her friend and nodded.

"What I think is very strange about the whole situation is that every time there is a problem in my life, it's because of the Blanco hombre! Every time! You know sexis!"

She laughed at her friend's name for her. "Does it seem that we have the most perverted names for each other?"

"Of course bitch!" She said and they both laughed, going to dinner together.

A few days later Isabella had finished her work and was lying on the grass in the courtyard, talking to her friends who were sitting on the ground, lying or leaning near the big oak tree that was shading everyone.

"So I heard about your hermana Martiz. She is in a coma. What an interesting theme to ponder." Isabella looked up at the girl who was saying it. A very dark skinned girl with dark brown eyes looked at her intensely.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Isabella asked, not in the mood to have any type of intellectual conversation.

"Woman! I do not think Isabella is really in the mood to talk!" Her best friend and roommate said. That shut the girl up and she actually walked away.

"So you have to either go to India for a week or some barren piece of pathetic existence of a town to be by your sister's side? What a fucked up dilemma!" A tall girl with straight, brunette hair said as she adjusted herself and sat down.

"I don't want to go to the stupid town! But I have no choice!"

"Sucks, just sucks!" That same girl said.

Adrianna was mad, but there was nothing that she could do.

She stood up and looked at them all, acting very mad and annoyed.

"REMEMBER ME AS YOU ARE RIDING AN ELEPHANT AND MAKING OUT WITH SOME VERY GOOD LOOKING AND VERY HOT INDIAN BOY!"

She then walked away and got ready to pack her stuff for laughable Colorado Springs.

Isabella soon left the college and as everyone else was talking excitedly, she was going to a stupid town in North America with about as much progressiveness as Pope Gregory XVI. She really did hate it, but she loved her sister a lot and going to India was not going to stop the fact that her sister was in a coma. They both had a silent, but deep respect for each other, so she got onto the freedom fighter train and in a few hours, she was in St. Louis, waiting for the stagecoach to take her to stupid, but maybe sexy, Colorado Springs.

Dr. Adrianna Martiz was sitting at the side as Michaela was giving Emily advice. She was anemic and so she gave her advice to drink rusty water, which she did not seem that keen to take, but she still decided to do it anyway. Aldamora was there too stitching a blanket for her new baby. She was barely showing. Colleen was sitting at the side, watching and looking very sad. Aldamora noticed it and stopped stitching to walk and sit by her.

"Colleen? Are you ok?"

She did not say a thing, but instead looked at the wall blankly. Michaela was still talking to Emily, so she did not even notice what was happening. Adrianna was becoming a little upset and stood up, wanting to give her a row when Brian came in and exclaimed that the stagecoach was there. They all left without a word, but Aldamora grabbed Adrianna and they fell back.

"What is wrong with Colleen?" Aldamora asked, looking very concerned.

"I do not know. I think that she wants Michaela's attention," Adrianna replied as they came outside.

The stagecoach had just arrived and Adrianna watched the first person come out. She was very surprised to see Señora Quinn walk out. Michaela did not seem to notice at all and was in the opposite direction, helping with the packages that the reverend was taking down. She was wearing a pink dress and seemed to be hitting her hand with some form of a stick.

Adrianna walked a little closer, but still stayed about a foot or so behind everyone else. She had the same, domineering, strict look that she remembered. Loren helped her down as she looked at the person behind her and her mouth went wide open. She just stood there and did not say a thing as her sister stood at the end of the stagecoach and took off her wire-rimmed glasses in a very dramatic way. She then looked straight at Adrianna, shook her head angrily, and pointed straight at her.

"YOU! YOU! WOMAN! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN A COMA. I WILL HURT YOU!" She started to run toward Adrianna, as if she was going to tackle her. Adrianna moved to the right a little, but enough to get out of the way. Isabella ran right into the wall and stood there for a second. Then she fell on the ground and Michaela ran to her. Señora Quinn looked annoyed at what had just happened.

"Oww! Pain! My ass!" Isabella moaned and Michaela was examining her. This seemed to annoy her because she abruptly stood up looked at Adrianna in vengeance. Then she looked at her Michaela, annoyed.

"Woman! I do not like women in that way! Stay away from me! Plus…you like HER!" Isabella looked and pointed at Adrianna, almost in tears. Unlike Adrianna, everyone looked upset and stared at Adrianna as if she had just shot a puppy. They did not know that much about her sister. If they did, they would have just rolled their eyes or ignored her. She was prone to be very theatrical about everything.

Adrianna shook her head, disgusted at her sister. She looked at her older sister and put her hand in front of her sister's face. Then she put her hand down and looked at Adrianna like she was being betrayed.

"I could be in India, deeply kissing a very hot Indian. He could be taking some exotic oil and slowly and very sensually rubbing it all over my legs. And then he would come up closer and decide to give me a little surprise and go under the lower undergarment section of the bathing outfit I was wearing and he started to touch m"—

Adrianna then put her hand on her mouth to shut her sister up. She forced her closer to herself as everyone looked shocked and dismayed at what she had just said.

As everyone looked disturbed at what she had just said, Adrianna turned her sister around.

"Isabella! What are you doing here?"

Isabella looked at her sister as if she wanted to shake her.

"I am here on my week off of spring break, instead of India to be by your side! I got a telegraph from some Punta named María that you were in a coma because of the influenza! What happened?" Isabella was looking at her sister, wondering what the hell happened.

Adrianna looked at her sister, her features softened. "Lo siento hermana. I was in a coma, but I awoke after a few days. I did not realize that María had even contacted you."

"Who is this María character?"

"She is a friend of mine. She is from a local freedom fighter tribe."

Isabella looked at Adrianna without saying a word.

"It's ok Izzy! I will make sure you have fun here. We have not had much time to spend together. Would you like that?"

Isabella embraced her sister. "I guess so."

She seemed to have made up with her sister so Adrianna walked away for a brief moment, and Elizabeth Quinn decided to continue her conversation with her daughter.

Isabella stood behind Elizabeth as she complained to Michaela and started to mock her. Adrianna had turned to Aldamora and they were leaving with a package that she had gotten and were not paying attention.

Michaela and the kids were doing their best not to laugh as Isabella was mocking her. As Elizabeth talked about all of her bags, Isabella stopped. She widened her eyes as she looked at the bags and started to laugh.

"What the heck! I do not believe that you need that much stuff for a few days visit! What are you going to do? Wait stop! You are going to wear something every hour qué?" She just shook her head and had a soft laugh.

Matthew helped bring down the boxes that were her stuff and Isabella tried to find a new victim. She saw an old man and was about to annoy him when the woman that her sister was talking to walked to her. She was very pretty with long, wavy, raven hair and bright green eyes. She was holding her abdomen and had a distinct feeling that she was pregnant. She walked to her and gave her a warm smile. She took out her hand and Isabella shook it. Adrianna came over and saw that she was acting mature and almost fell over, not sure what to say.

"Isabella, this is my best friend Aldamora Raúl of the royal house of Santis."

It must have been a second after Adrianna had said Santis that Isabella screamed and ran to Adrianna and jumped on her. Adrianna was soon holding her 16-year-old sister and not liking it. She dropped her and just left, very annoyed and embarrassed.

A little later Adrianna went with Michaela since they had a patient and Aldamora went with her. Afraid that she was going to get killed by the Santis, she decided to check out this town that her sister was a part of.

She came a little outside of the so-called clinic when she saw two men arguing. She came up to them and found that he did not want to pay for a whore at the saloon. Isabella had the great idea to say something.

"Hey if you want a free whore, I'm here!"

They both looked at her as if she was crazy. Then the supposed owner of the Saloon looked her up and down and seemed to be undressing her with his eyes.

"If you take that thing off of your eyes, then we might be able to work out a deal," he said slickly.

Adrianna widened her eyes and cracked a big laugh.

"I was just joking hombre!" She said it looking freaked at the thought that this man wanted her to work for her. She decided that this was the time to leave and so she did, running as fast as she could.

They were all going home on the same wagon, against what Elizabeth wanted since she did not like Isabella that much. She was explaining her trip and complaining and Isabella had to say something stupid.

"You complain too much Señora Quinn. My sister and I lived on the streets for one year and another in a shack with a strange British doctor who served one month in the Crimean War. I would not be complaining that much woman if I were you. I could bet all of my money that you have always had a roof on your head and food in your stomach."

Adrianna looked at Isabella as if she wanted to kill her right there. Isabella went closer to Brian and put him on her lap.

"Hey! What are you doing?" He asked, not wanting to be on anyone's lap now.

"You are insurance," Isabella said.

"What's 'surance?" He asked her.

"It means that I am using you to make sure my dear, sweet sister DOESN'T TRY TO KILL ME!" She said and glared at her sister. Everyone except Elizabeth laughed.

"I thought you lived in an orphanage?" Colleen said.

Adrianna glared at Isabella and slowly shook her head and closed her eyes.

"I lied; I don't think that this is the time to discuss it."

Isabella started to tickle Brian and he started to laugh.

"So Annie, what have you been getting yourself up to?" She said trying to stop from being killed.

"How about you? I have not been sent a telegram about you destroying school property, so it seems that you are not getting in that much trouble!" She said it, looking mad.

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't mine either."

"Why don't you answer mine?"

"Because I don't feel like it."

"Well I don't feel like it."

"Well I don't feel like it."

"Hey! You copied me Annie!"

"So I did."

"Yes you did."

"You did what you did."

"But you did what you did what you did."

"No I did what I did what I did what I did."

"No I did what I"—

"SILENCE! Please stop talking!" It was Señora Quinn, who looked very upset. Isabella started to laugh and was having a hard time concealing it. She always loved when people yelled at her, because she would laugh and then they would get even angrier.

Adrianna gave her sister a deadly look and she became very quiet.

Michaela continued talking to her mother and Adrianna sat in the back, looking at Isabella like she wanted to kill her and Isabella hugging Brian and sticking her tongue out at her and also making faces at her.

They came home, Señora Quinn was of course disapproving of the house, and Isabella came in and started to run around the house like a crazy person. Matthew used incorrect grammar and Isabella came to him and shook her head.

"There is only one person in this house, who has to right, (Yes the right!) to speak incorrectly IT IS I! Don't make me beat you up boy!" She then found a seat and whistled some unknown tune. "Oh yeah and the blondie over there was a little inconsiderate. I should set her straight, but I'm too lazy to do it now," she finished.

She then started to sing her tune.

_9.8,_

_9.8,_

_9.8 meters per second, _

_isn't that great!_

She then stood up and clapped her hand to the beat of her song. She then went into an aria.

_IF..I..THREW..A..BALL..FROM..A..BUILDING..IT..WOULD..FALL..AT..9....8..METERS..PER..SECOND!..ISN'T..THAT..GREAT!_

She was starting to get annoying very fast. Adrianna soon saved them when she came in

with a scary stare and crossed arms, Isabella stopped and gave an innocent smile.

"I didn't do a thing!" She said but Adrianna did not believe her.

"Do not play me! You are going to stop this! You are going with me now!" She then grabbed her sister by the sleeve and she made her drag her all the way to her barn.

After threat of death, Isabella promised that she would not say a thing out of line or stupid. She instead decided to check out this town and followed Elizabeth, as some old man that she thought was the shopkeeper started to talk to her. He tried his best words to swoon her but was kindly let down. Isabella walked next to him and patted him on the shoulders.

"Smooth! Real smooth!" She said to him and he looked at her irked.

"Oh shut up!" He said to her and ran back to his store.

Isabella was looking for her sister at that moment, not wanting to get in trouble by doing anything more that would be considered stupid or out of line.

She went to the clinic, hoping that she would find her sister. Instead, she came on a conversation between some banker and the young Quinn woman. He was saying that he did not have confidence in a woman doctor. Isabella had kept a promise, but decided that this was the time to break the promise.

"Talking about confidence Señor, I would not have confidence of your fitness at all."

"Excuse me? I only speak English."

This really started to anger Isabella and she started to say some regretful things.

"I was born in this country you ugly woman!"

The man was starting to get upset and just as he was about to say something Adrianna came and put her hand again on her sister's mouth.

"I'm sorry about that. She has some problems with her head." Adrianna said, trying to rectify the situation.

He looked at down at Adrianna in a very haughty way and spit in her face.

"I only talk to real Americans not foreign whores!"

He then left; feeling pleased with himself and did not pay attention at any of what Isabella was saying.

"I was talking about your fitness! Your fitness as a man in the bedroom. You have a small penis!"

Everyone looked taken aback at her behavior. Michaela looked at her, not believing what she had just said and Adrianna looked very dangerous. She started to walk to her horse; she got on it and started to ride away, not saying anything at all.

Isabella moved her head to the side and clapped her hands. Michaela nodded her head.

"Adrianna didn't say that much about you. All I know is that you are very smart and like to get in trouble a little too much."

Isabella looked at Michaela, wondering if she should answer the question.

"I yam what I yam," she said remembering the expression from some time travel agent who was obsessed with spinach.

"You certainly have a positive attitude about life."

"Yeah I do. I could do the mysterious Spanish beauty thing that my sister did, but I would probably do something stupid like trip on my dress as I did some sexy walk. I really do not do it as well as my sister does. She knows what to do. I don't, in fact I would probably anger every man, since I am way smarter than them, doesn't work for the role I play in life."

Michaela just smiled at Isabella and then looked out in the distance to where Adrianna had gone. She looked worried.

"She does this and every time I get worried," Michaela said.

"She still does that? I would not see her a lot when we lived with my uncle. She was always alone, drowning herself in her sadness and depression. She has always run away from her problems, which is one of reasons I am the way I am. I didn't want to be like her."

Isabella then started to sniff the air as if she was a dog. Michaela thought she was just being Isabella, doing something stupid to make her laugh after what happened. Instead, she looked serious.

He walked toward the livery and kept smelling until she came to the entrance. She looked at Sully and then came in closer. She saw wolf and started to bark at him and he responded. It was as if they were having a conversation with each other.

Everyone was laughing, thinking she was crazy or just plain weird. She looked very serious as she "talked" to wolf and he did in his dog way. Grace left annoyed that Robert E did not say a thing and Sully started to leave, asking wolf to come with him, looking amused.

Isabella did not say a thing but left, looking very white. She stooped at the entrance and looked at Robert E.

"I and wolf agree that you need to look at your forage." She then left and Robert E ignored what she had just said, Grace still on his mind.

As Isabella left, she shook her head and walked to Michaela, as the forage exploded and Robert E started to burn. He ran around and Isabella started to struggle with her bag, trying to look for some natural ointment that she found worked well with burns. By the time, she had whipped it out, the fire was put out and he was lying on the floor, looking very bad.

She took out the ointment that was in a glass test tube and accidentally dropped it. She yelled, "Fuck!" and everyone looked dismayed at her expression. Michaela ran to him and asked some man for help named Jake.

"Maybe that's not such a good idea," he replied.

Isabella was around many progressive people at school who would say a thing or two to him. Isabella was not that person. Instead, she said something stupid, as she usually did.

"Yo bitch, I wouldn't be talking much if I were you, you racist son of a bitch. Especially since, you help men with their vanity issues. Go away and kiss your man!"

Jake looked very upset at what had just been said and was about to say something when Aldamora came by. Isabella saw her and screamed that she was a demon before running away as far as she could.

Michaela instead was forced to take him home at her house and use her own bed as his resting place. Adrianna was nowhere to be seen and Isabella looked a little upset that her sister had done that since she did want to spend time with her.

Robert E did not want to be there and tried to get away. Michaela, Sully and Isabella restrained him. Isabella, who looked petite physically seemed to have the strength of a gorilla and was a lot of help now.

She looked at Robert E and then at Michaela.

"He is going to be ok?" She asked Michaela, fear popping into her voice.

"I'll make sure of it," Michaela answered her.

Isabella then looked at him and smiled, "When I'm sad and depressed, I like to sing. It keeps my mind away from everything. Maybe you can try that Robert E. I might even tell you about pen15."

He followed her instructions and started to hum a tune.

Isabella decided to sleep in Adrianna place in the barn since she had not come back. She did not dare leave, afraid that the Santis would sneak up on her and slit her throat. She knew that if she stayed around the house, she would not kill her because there would be too many witnesses. She had decided that she would check out the place and saw wolf again and started to bark with the dog. His owner, a man named Sully looked at her as if she was crazy.

"Are you ok?" He asked, wondering about her sanity.

"I'm fine. I just…well…let me just say that I relate to him. He is such a beautiful and loyal animal. I love wolves; you always know that they will be there for you and that they won't run off whenever there is a problem."

Sully nodded, but did not know that she was talking about her sister.

Isabella left and sat at the other end of the barn where she knew no one would be and wondered where her sister was now.

Adrianna was very hurt and angry, she had wanted the bastard of the first national bank of Denver to be disemboweled, and she wanted to be the one to do that. Angry tears fell from her face as her horse, Lobster, trotted as fast as she could into the wild. She was so angry that she kept the horse running, running right at the end of a large cliff. The horse neighed very loudly and stopped right before the end of the cliff. Adrianna screamed as she fell down the cliff very hard and landed in a small enclave, landing on her back and hitting her head on the rocks.

Adrianna slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a dark cave. She tried to adjust her eyes and found that the only source of light was in the fire that was blazing in the center of the cave. It was huge too and she saw what looked like old bones scattered in one section of the cave. She also saw that there were dead animals tied on a string, which was connected to a long wooden pole that had somehow been forced between two sections of the cave wall.

Adrianna sat up and realized that she was lying on buffalo hide. She then felt at her head and realized that there was a bandage of cloth wrapped around her forehead. She got up, but realized that she felt real pain on her back when she tried to get up and stayed down.

She tried to move the bandage and felt blood; she had gotten a concussion and knew that it was best not to do anything at all. Therefore, she instead lay there, wondering where the hell she was.

She stared at the roof of the cave, watching the shadows caused by the fire. As she watched it, she thought of the story in the bible where Jesus came to a cave and was tempted by the devil to go with him. As Adrianna closed her eyes she tried to sleep away, the immense pain she was feeling. As she tried to sleep, she felt that there was something or someone there watching over her. She sleep had already taken over her soul before she could see that the mysterious man in the trench coat was there watching over her, taking care of her.

Isabella was never the person that would sit thinking about her problems, feeling sorry for her. That was her sister, not her. She was a woman, actually a girl, of action. She must have been one second on the ground sitting and thinking, before she dragged her ass off the ground and went into the barn. She saw that blondie, also known as Colleen, was milking the cow and her favorite old person, Señora Quinn was there.

"I'm going to die!" Was the first thing that Isabella heard when she came in.

Señora Quinn asked her why and she talked of bleeding for two whole days.

Señora Quinn smiled, "Oh darling, you're not going to die! You're just growing up! You've become a woman!"

"Yeah! I remember when I got my first one! It was great! I had found myself playing a game called hide and seek….Well I guess you can say that I lost!" Isabella said immaturely.

This seemed to cheer up Colleen because she smiled and even hugged Isabella.

"That's right sexis!"

Isabella then patted Señora Quinn's shoulder and she gave a little scream. "I give you permission to tell the Senorita what this little thing is all about, because I am going to see how much more trouble I can get into!"

Isabella had started to annoy Michaela a little by walking around the house about 100 times. She finally stopped when she saw that Michaela was holding a knife and she did not want to die a most horrible death by knife.

"Where is my hermana?" Isabella asked, looking very angry and annoyed.

"I don't know at all, so why don't you stay where you are and help me peel this potato."

Isabella looked at Michaela as if she was crazy.

"What the heck woman? Do I look like a peeling the potato kind of woman? For your information! I am a cutting an onion and crying really hard kind of woman!"

She then went into the barn to see if she could work out some equations. Colleen was in there and was doing something but Isabella was too preoccupied with the fact that her undergarments seemed to be sticking in her crack of her butt. She went to her sister's "room" and fell over. She then struggled with the blankets, which seemed to be tangled around her. She finally did get out of it and looked around for some paper and pens. She stopped looking when she heard someone come in. Michaela seemed to want to say sorry about not paying attention to her.

Colleen did not want to talk to her at all and Isabella did not really blame her. Adrianna always seemed obsessed with revenge and many times, she seemed to forget that she had a little sister. If she were truly honest, she would believe that her sister did not really take care of her. She was a virtual stranger to her, never spending that much time. She even is gone now, now that she really did want to spend some time with her sister.


	13. Attack of the Annoying Sister: Part Two

Disclaimer: I do not own _Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman_ or anything that relates to that. That belongs to CBS INC. I am just borrowing them for a while. I just might keep Sully a little longer. All of the new and strange characters belong to me, even though I might want to sell Isabella! Maybe you would like her for a while?

Adrianna woke up again and found herself on the same buffalo bed, but the difference was there sitting in front of her, was a man, who had his eyes closed.

Adrianna was now just sore and so she slowly tried to put herself up and it did not work. With all of the commotion that she was making, the man did not move. He was only wearing some velvet pants that were freedom fighter in nature and a black headband on his forehead. He looked very strong, like he was a warrior with a very muscular body. He also had a big scar on his upper chest that went to his heart to the bottom right hand of his stomach. His hair looked to be spiked and was jet black. Adrianna was not sure what to think at all. Was he evil? Was he good?

She looked at him, not sure what he was going to do. She leaned low against the wall and watched him. He looked to be breathing deeply, as he was mediating. He must have heard her because he opened his eyes. Adrianna stared into his beautiful but cold blue eyes. She was mesmerized with his eyes and just sat there, not moving.

He stood up and walked toward her, roughly forcing her up and pushed her against the wall. His body was against hers and their mouths were inches apart. She had the strange desire to kiss him.

His mouth moved closer to her and before she knew it, he was kissing her deeply. Adrianna was so weak and vulnerable that she let him in and let him take possession of her mouth. Their tongues clashed together as he roughly explored her mouth. He seemed to want more from her because he took his mouth off hers and started to kiss her neck. Adrianna had never been kissed on the neck before and she started to moan. She held onto him and started to breathe more rapidly. Then, just as soon as he kissed her, he stopped and let go, walking out of the cave and not looking back.

Isabella decided to travel with Michaela and hope that her stupid sister would come to the town and not wherever she was. She liked the town in a way and not all of the people were bad. She especially liked the telegraph man and went ahead of Michaela to see what was going on with Mr. Telegraph man. He was doing a telegraph for the asshole banker and Isabella knew that it was time to annoy the banker.

When she came in, he saw her and groaned.

"What are you doing here?" He asked obviously annoyed at her.

She went to him and hugged him as he tried to get off her. "My little bitch! I want to know how you and your very, VERY tiny penis are doing?"

He just looked at her, "Do you people have any manners?"

Isabella looked at him and angrily took out a pen. She then went to the counter and took out a glass container that seemed to contain ink. She dipped the pen into the container and grabbed his arm. She ripped some of his left sleeve and with tremendous strength, wrote penis on his arm. She gave him back his arm and laughed at him.

"Now you're part of the pen15 club, biach!" Isabella said as she slapped his ass as Michaela came in.

"You are a freak!" He said, very angered at her behavior.

"I know you are, but what am I?" She said mockingly, remembering some futuristic expression.

"You are stupid and dumb and immoral and not fit to even exist, foreigner!"

Isabella put out her hand and started to laugh. "You know I was born in Connecticut, right? My family is from an island off Spain and I am the only member who was born here. My family had been here for two years punto and there is no way that you can call me a foreigner! Don't disrespect the family at all, or I will show you a little experiment!"

She then left, not saying a thing to anyone else.

Isabella's next victim was the old man who owned the general shop. She knew the perfect plan to annoy him, and all it had to do was with asking for a simple product. She sniggered as she walked to the mercantile store thinking of her evil plan. All she had to do was ask for a nonexistent item!

She lazily strolled in, looking at a few of the items. The store was crap, there was no denying that. It had crap all over the place and she even thought there was crap for real, but realized that it was some type of brownish food that didn't look very edible at all. He saw her and as she was looking at the books, he walked to her, not liking the fact that she was even in this store.

"What do you want?" He asked very gruffly and Isabella feigned a very taken aback expression.

"Excuse me señor! I am just a PAYING CUSTOMER HERE!" Isabella said, trying to contain her laughter.

"Well then buy something! Or do you not understand that much English?"

Isabella pointed directly at his chest, touching him.

"Look here, Señor! I am a simple college girl, born in the United States who has parents and siblings that were born in an island off Spain! I think that you can at least tell me where a very useful and general item in your store is! It is common and all of the general stores seem to have it. If you have a great mercantile store, you must have this item!"

"Oh right. What is it?" He asked looking around the store.

"You have probably heard of it, as every real mercantile owner has. It's the PCST converter!"

The man looked at her as if she was crazy, as everyone tended to do.

"The what?" He asked looking fazed.

"The port censor security tablature converter, but I don't have to tell you about that! You must have it in stock, or maybe you ran out, this is a very popular item!"

He shook his head, disgusted at her. "There is no such thing!"

Isabella started to laugh. "Ahh! A joker, I have here! You like to play jokes huh! Well I do not think this is funny at all. I have lost mine and need it badly. If you call yourself a competent businessperson, you would know of this! Everyone does, unless you are not a good store owner, qué?" Isabella crossed her arms and looked at the old man, who looked very steamed.

"Get out! Get out!" The storeowner took out his broom and started hitting Isabella. This seemed like a good time to leave and so she left, not looking back at all.

Adrianna did not know what time it was and she obviously did not know what day it was. For all she knew, a week or even a month had gone by. In that spans of time, she had not seen the mysterious man with the intense blue eyes. He was in there, she knew that much, but he never came when she was awake. He came at night and always brought Adrianna something to eat on the wooden pole. She hungrily skinned and ate the animal with the fire. Leaving the bones and fur for other things, like weapons. She was starting to get a little scared, something that she tried to not admitting to herself. This man had somehow saved her life and even fed her, but she did not know a thing about him, except that he gave good kisses.

As she started to think of the kiss, her blood would boil and she would start feeling things about the opposite sex that she had never felt. She had only kissed one man and that was Jasón. The only problem was she had never felt this way for Jas and any other man before. She had strange feelings for him, but there were mostly physical and that was not the kind of thing that she wanted now.

Her back was not as sore as before and before she knew it, she was walking around and exploring the cave. In what looked to be the most northern part, there was a fountain of water. This looked to be the only source of water she could find and hungrily drank it and found that it was very cold and refreshing. As she looked around in the various rooms, she saw no remnant of his past. He did not have any pictures and no personal touch at all. His bedroom only had one buffalo hide as his bed and some soft and white animal hide as a blanket. His clothes were the same everyday. He had a black trench coat that only had one clasp at the top, and so it looked like it was partly open for the rest of the coat. He also had some velvet pants and what looked like black undergarments. She was going to go further when she heard footsteps. She froze and they steps came closer. He grabbed her forcefully from the back and she groaned from the pain as he was forcing her against him. His arms locked with hers and he just stood there, breathing deeply, not saying a word.

He started to send soft kisses from her neck to her eyes and she moaned from the pleasure. He gave a cold laugh and turned her around. He looked her in the eyes with a cold and domineering look. Adrianna could tell that he did not like her here and wanted to teach her a lesson. He forced her on the bed and pressed against her. She looked for the strength to overcome him, but it would not come she did not want it to come. She wanted him to do whatever he was going to do. She wanted him, no matter how much she said she did not.

She just lay there as he was on his side and slowly inching on top of her. She closed her eyes, waiting for what he was going to do. He slowly unbuttoned the top part of her black and white checkered dress. It was a traditional dress that she decided was best to wear with señora Quinn around. She even wore the silky white slip top and slip skirt underneath. He continued to unbutton the top part of her dress until there were no more buttons. Adrianna opened her eyes, not sure what was going to happen next. He was looking at her chest, and took his hand to her suspenders and put his hand under it. He touched the slip top underneath very slowly, briefly cupping her breasts.

Adrianna breathed hard, not sure what was happening. Some strange man was on her and she was going to loose her virginity. Before she even thought of getting away, he got off her and stood up, his trench coat flowing at the movement. Adrianna got up and started to button the top part of her dress up as he hungrily watched.

They then stared at each other, not making a noise and not saying a thing. After what seemed like minutes of silence, he was the first to speak. He said it in a sensual baritone voice in a thick Russian accent.

"You Carlucci's are addicting." He looked at her intensely and walked away, but Adrianna did not want that to happen. She grabbed his shoulder as he was as the end of the room and he looked back at her, not looking happy that she was touching her.

"What do you want!"

Adrianna looked back at him and gave a deep breath.

"I want to know who you are and what I'm doing here."

He forcefully took off her hand and glared at her.

"You do not need to know that. All you need to know is that I found you and saved your life. When you are well enough, I will blindfold you and take you to your horse. You will not tell of my existence to another soul, including Aldamora." He said the last word differently, as if it was painful to say. He gave her one last glare and left, walking very regally into the distance.

Adrianna ever more confused about her feelings and who he was. The one thing she did know is that she wanted to know more about the man.

Isabella had decided to go to town with Michaela that day, very angry with her sister. She was acting very depressed, about as much as Colleen was, and so had a biological reason to be full of angst. Michaela noticed too and when she had a heart-to-heart with Colleen, she turned around and looked at Isabella, who was eating about ten worms and once with her mouth open, which gave a very good sight to anyone who had still not eaten yet.

"Isabella, I can tell you are upset, do you want to talk about it?"

She looked up at her and stood up, going to the side and puking them up, which was equally disturbing since there were still some that were alive and both Michaela and Colleen looked disgusted at the sight of puke with moving worms in it.

Isabella wiped up the excess puke from her mouth and licked it off her hands. She then sat down and looked at both of them.

"Sorry about that sexis. I was just not hungry."

"Did you need to do that?" Colleen asked, still disgusted.

"Yes, just to see the expressions on your face," she said it looking very seriously.

Michaela shook her head, as Isabella continued.

"This was not that way that I wanted to spend my week off. I come to this poor excuse for a town to be by my sister's side and then after my pen15 pal goes off and disrespects us, she goes off on her horse to run, as she always does. This is what I am used to and it annoys me. I want to be with my sister, but she always has something that makes her stay away from me! I hate her!"

Isabella had tears in her face, obviously upset with what happened and Michaela rubbed her shoulder and even gave her a little hug.

"I'm sure she will come back," Colleen said, trying to cheer her up.

"I don't want her back. She can go off as long as she wants, I do not care! I do not want her to come back! I wish she was dead." She then started to cry, putting her face between her knees.

"You might get your wish."

It was Aldamora, looking a little scared on horseback, one hand holding her abdomen that was obviously growing with life inside, the other holding her reigns. Michaela looked at her, worry on her face.

"What is wrong, Aldamora?"

She breathed deeply and was about to tell her all about it when Isabella interrupted her.

"Isn't it obvious? She killed her and is now going to tell us all about it in full detail."

Aldamora shook her head, looking even whiter than before.

"I was born a Santis, but am no longer one. I was never one. You do not have to be afraid of me. I will not hurt you, especially since I am pregnant. You must trust me, your sister does."

Isabella looked at her and she seemed to have believed her.

"I have heard a rumor that Santis are not evil during pregnancies and even if I didn't believe that, my sister trusts you, and she barely does that to anyone else."

She took out her hand and both freedom fighters shook their hands.

"So what is wrong with my sister? This had better be good." Isabella said, crossing her arms and looking directly at Aldamora.

"The truth is that I have no idea where she is! She has not come by the village in a few days; the last time was a day before you arrived. She seemed to have just disappeared. I asked around town and a few told me that she was talking to some banker from Denver and just left on horseback. Is that true?"

Isabella nodded her head, not saying a thing. Michaela nodded too, "That is the last time we saw her. Are you positive that you have not seen her anywhere?"

She shook her head. "No, I have asked everyone possible, even going to the Cheyenne village and asking Chief Black Kettle if he or his braves have seen her. I am scared; she has not been like this in a while. Even when she was angry with you Michaela, I would see her around or she would come to the village."

Isabella took in all of the information, regretting what she had just said. "Do you have people looking for her?"

"We have, they have gone everywhere! We cannot find her at all."

Isabella looked a little frightened, but tried to keep up a brave face.

"I want you to keep looking for her. She is either hiding from us or is hurt. I know she is brave. I will pray for her and hope that she will come home soon."

Aldamora gave her a kind and warm smile. "You are brave Isabella Martiz."

Isabella smiled, hoping that she was right and she was not dead, like she thought.

Adrianna sat at the fountain feeling a little dizzy. She knew it was her head injury. She splashed a little water on her face and closed her eyes. She did not think she could stay awake that long and felt like passing out. She looked at the fountain and saw him looking at her from above. She did not think she would see his face again, but she had and as he picked her up and carried her to her sleeping place so that he could put on the ointment for her back, she felt like she was in a strange world.

He looked her in the eye and she looked back at him.

"What did you mean?" She asked as he started to unbutton the top part of her dress.

"Shut up Carlucci and let me do this. I do not want contact with you; do not make it harder for me by talking."

Isabella let him take off the top part of her dress. He did not look her in the eyes as he forced her on her stomach and forced up her slip top. He then took out the ointment and massaged it on her back. He had rough hands, as she knew before, but they seemed even rougher on her back. She did not like feeling this way for a man that was not Jasón, but she could not help it. His touch was mesmerizing and she had the distinct feeling that he would be a good lover. Adrianna blushed at her terrible thoughts and was glad that he could not see her face. He would laugh at her and probably leave. She did not know his name or anything about him, but there was this feeling of kindred spirits that came across from her. She was an assassin, a killer who had a terrible past and this man was a hunter, a mountain man who was probably running away from his past.

When he said Carlucci, he said it with hurt and anger. She had the feeling that he had been hurt before, maybe by a relative. Adrianna did not delve at all in the family of her mother's and knew that there was no way she would of, it was not the way she was. If a family member had hurt him and caused him to be this distant man, then they should be ashamed of themselves.

He had finished and she sat up, her back feeling much better. He was on his knees and pulled her to him, holding her close as if she was his lover. He just stayed there, keeping her warm. Adrianna felt something warm and wet on her bare shoulder. She turned around rapidly and saw him, his face full of tears. He then got up rapidly and angrily wiped the tears off his face and ran out of the cave.

Adrianna looked at where he had walked and put on the top part of her dress. She was starting to think of him as more than a sex-crazed psycho. She almost thought she was falling in love with him.

Isabella woke up and sneaked into the house, to check on the blacksmith. She had prayed for him and for her sister a lot and hoped that they had come true. She did not know that man, but felt like she had known him for years. He seemed like a good and hard worker who was an ex-slave. She hated how the whites treated those that looked or acted different. If they were in the same position, she knew that if they were in the position of those they treated differently, they would act very different. That was probably why she acted the way she did.

She heard voices and as she came closer to the room, she realized that it was the little Brian and Señora Quinn. She was telling him a story, which was about Michaela. When she had finished Isabella came in and jumped up and down.

"Can I sit on your lap so that you can tell me a story? I promise I will be good!" Brian laughed as Elizabeth groaned.

"You know Señora Quinn; we have one thing in common?" Isabella said, sparking up a conversation.

"We have the same name! Isabella is the Spanish version of Elizabeth! Isn't that neat!"

She seemed to have annoyed her enough for her to leave.

Isabella sat down and Brian crawled up on her lap.

"Your ma is dead like mine is," he said to her.

"Yeah, she is dead. I do not remember it much. I was only four months old. I can barely remember much about what happened before our Uncle found us."

"I guess I was lucky to know my ma a little." He then hugged her as a tear fell from her face.

Adrianna woke up the next morning to see him force a blindfold on her face. She knew that she was going to leave for the day and was a little disappointed that that was going to happen. She walked with him, as they seemed to go through a variety of steep and dangerous steps. Twice she fell into his arms and twice he brought her to her feet, Adrianna felt how strong he was and had wanted to take the blindfold off and ask him whom he was, instead she walked ahead, past the rocky steps and onto the grass above. She was glad she was walking on grass, because the last few days of hard rock were painful since she had forgotten how much it hurt since her days as an assassin.

She soon heard neighing in the distance and knew that it was Lobster, since she had a distinct neigh. They walked closer to the sound and soon she felt the horse and he took off her blindfold.

They both looked at each other for a minute not saying a thing, as they seemed to do a lot. She looked away first and got onto the horse. She took out her hand and he reluctantly took it.

"Thank you," was all she said and he walked closer. She leaned down so that they could share one last soft kiss. He then took one of her fingers and put it in his mouth.

"You female Carlucci's are all the same. I have to learn how to resist your incredible beauty. Do not tell anyone of me, that is all the payment I want," he said it darkly.

Adrianna watched her walk off into the distance and felt a strange connection to the mysterious man.

She decided to go to Colorado Springs, having a distinct feeling that her sister was going to be there. She was going to be mad and wanting an explanation. She could not tell her the truth, even if she wanted to.

By the time she had gotten to Colorado Springs, the stagecoach was there and Isabella and Señora Quinn were saying their goodbyes. Lobster trotted to them and Isabella widened her eyes when she saw her.

Adrianna got off the horse and ran to her sister who had started to cry. Adrianna tried to calm her. She was in tears as she let go and looked at the bandage that was still there. Michaela noticed too and looked at her, as if she was going to examine her.

"I'm fine, I just fell off my horse and had to stay somewhere until I well enough to move. My expertise in neurology saved my life. I am sorry Izzy, I should have been here. I had no choice sweetie."

Isabella smiled and gave her another hug.

"It is ok sexis I had fun here. You would be surprised how one sexy student of physics could have fun."

They both laughed.

Isabella got on the stagecoach and looked out the window.

"I am going to miss you Annie, I barely got to spend any amount of time with you. We must get together next year."

"It's a promise," Adrianna answered, and then remembered something.

"Isabella?"

"Sí?"

"Did a female relative of ours ever hurt a man of Russian origin?"

Isabella squint her eyes and thought about the question her sister asked.

"The only thing I can think of is our cousin Princess Blanca. She had taken a fiancée who was a prince in the royal house of Apollinariya. His name was something like Radoslav. She used her body to make him fall deep for her, but she was after her brother, because he was the crown prince. She dumped him at the alter and his brother married her instead. He soon denounced him once he became king and no one heard from him since."

Adrianna put her hand to her heart, believing the story, since it did go with the way he acted.

"Why the heck do you want to know woman?"

"I do not know, I guess for reference," she said softly.

The stagecoach soon left and Adrianna felt even closer to this mysterious man and knew that she had to meet him, had to get to know him and his sad story.


End file.
